plasticity and functional recovery of brain

• what is meant by brain plasticity?

  The brain's ability to modify its structure and function as a result of experience
• what is meant by functional recovery?

  recovering of abilities and mental processes that have been compromised as a result of brain injury or disease
• explain plasticity as a result of life experience

  • neural pathways that are used frequently develop stronger connections, whereas neurones rarely/never used die
  • This mean brain can constantly adapt to changing environment
  • however, also natural decline in cognitive functioning that can be attributed to changes in the brain
• what evidence did Boyke et al discover about plasticity as a result of life experience?

  • in 60 yr olds- found evidence of plasticity when developed the new skill of juggling
  • increased grey matter in visual cortex
  • however when practise stopped, changes reversed
• describe plasticity as a result of playing video games

  • requires complex cognitive and motor demands
  • increases grey matter in brain
  • results in new synaptic connections in brain areas to do with eg-spatial navigation and strategic planning
• what did Kuhn et al discover about plasticity as a result of video gaming?

  • compared control group and a video game group which was trained for 2 mths for at least 30 mins/day on super mario
  • concluded video game training resulted in new synaptic connections in brain areas involved in spatial navigation and strategic planning, etc
• describe neural plasticity as a result of meditation

  • changes workings of the brain in the short term and produces permanent changes in the long term
  • increases gamma wave activity in the brain
• what did Davidson et al discover about plasticity as a result of meditation?

  • 8 practitioners of meditation compared to 10 students with no prior meditation experience
  • fitted with electrical rods while meditating- greater activation of gamma waves in the monks
• AO3 for plasticity?

  • 😊 experience- Boyke et al found an increase in grey matter in visual cortex in 60 year olds when they learned the new skill of juggling, but lost skill with decreased practise
  • 😊 video games- Kuhn et al- compared video gamers trained for 2 mths 30min/day to control group. increase in grey matter in areas like the cortex, hippocampus and cerebellum in gaming group, not evident in the controls
  • 😊 experience in spatial navigation- Maguire et al- using MRI scanner, researchers calculated the amount of grey matter in the brains of taxi drivers and control participants. Taxi drivers had larger posterior hippocampi, hippocampal volume positively correlated to time they spent as drivers
• describe what is meant by functional recovery

  • some parts of the brain may be damaged or destroyed as a result of trauma
  • however, other parts appear to take over the functions that were lost
  • neurones next to damaged brain areas can form new circuits that resume some of the lost function
• state two ways in which the brain is able to change structurally and functionally following trauma

  • stem cells
  • neural unmasking
• describe how neural unmasking can restore brain function following trauma

  • Wall identified dormant synapses in the brain
  • they exist in the brain but their action is blocked
  • may be ineffective because the rate of neural input is too low for them to be activated
  • but increasing the rate of input to these synapses can then open them
  • this can open connections to parts of the brain that are not normally activated, which allows new structures to be developed
• describe how stem cells can restore brain function following trauma

  • stem cells implanted into the brain can directly replace dead or dying cells
  • transplanted cells can secrete growth factors that can somehow rescue the injured cells
  • transplanted cells can form a neural network, which links uninjured brain site and new stem cells are made with the damaged region of the brain
• what can stem cells do?

  unspecialised cells that have the potential to give rise to different cell types that carry out different functions
• evaluate functional recovery after trauma

  • 😊 evidence- Tajiri et al- rats with trauma randomly assigned to SC transplant group/receiving soln with no SCs (control), SC group developed more neurones in the area of injury, also there was a constant stream of stem cells migrating to the site of injury.
  • ☹️ age effects- studies have suggested abilities recovered in childhood can be recovered in adults too with lots of training, however Elbert et al- capacity for neural reorganisation much better in kids than in adults, plasticity specific to age
  • ☹️ education effects- patients with an equivalent of a college degree have a 7x more likely chance to be disability free 1yr after trauma than those who don't (Schnieder et al)