Evaluation

• Research support - Case study

  • EB - left hemispherectomy
  • Functional recovery after trauma
  • Left hemisphere reformed and right hemisphere adapted
  • Therefore, this proves that new synaptic connections can be made
• Real-world application

  • Understanding plasticity has led to the development of neurorehabilitation
  • Understanding that axonal growth is possible encourages new therapies to be tried
  • E.g. constraint-induced movement therapies used with stroke patients (unaffected body part is restrained)
  • Therefore, research into functional recovery has a practical use in the medical field
• Individual differences


  • Individual differences may affect recovery rates
  • Schneider - those who spend longer in education 7x more likely to make a disability-free recovery, one year after a severe brain injury
  • He found 39% of patients with 16+ years of education made a DFR compared to 10% of those with less than 12 years of education
• Counterpoint to individual differences


  • educational achievement may have been affected by an intervening variable
  • A third variable may account for the relationship - e.g. socioeconomic status, overall health or greater social support which means they are more likely to achieve in education and more likely to recover functionally
  • The relationship noted by Schneider may be due to other external factors (and not entirely due to neural adaptability)