A03: Brain Plasticity

• Practical Applications


  • Increased understanding of plasticity has led to the field of neurorehabilitation.
  • Following illness or injury to the brain, spontaneous recovery slows after a few weeks, and neurorehabilitation helps maintain improvements in functioning.
  • However, although this is a practical application of plasticity research, it also shows that the brain requires some external intervention to 'fix' itself.
• Support from Animal Studies

  • Hubel and Wiesel sewed one eye shut in a kitten and analysed its cortical responses.
  • The visual cortex associated with the shut eye was not idle but continued processing information from the other eye.
• Support from Human Studies

  • Maguire et al (2000) studied London taxi drivers to see if brain changes could be detected due to their extensive navigational experience.
  • Using MRI scans, researchers found significantly greater grey matter in the posterior hippocampi of taxi drivers compared to controls.
• Plasticity Reduces with Age

  • Functional plasticity is thought to reduce with age.
  • After childhood, the brain relies more on compensatory behavioural strategies to adapt (e.g., seeking social support or developing strategies for cognitive deficits).
  • However, studies suggest even abilities considered fixed in childhood can be modified in adults with intense retraining.
  • Elbert et al (2001) concluded that neural reorganisation capacity is much greater in children than adults, as seen in the extended practice required for changes in adults.
• Cognitive Reserve Affects Plasticity

  • Schneider et al (2014) found that education level influences recovery from brain injury.
  • Patients with a college education were seven times more likely to be disability-free one year after a traumatic brain injury.
  • A retrospective study of 769 patients showed:
  • 40% of those with 16+ years of education achieved disability-free recovery (DFR).
  • 30% of those with 12-15 years of education achieved DFR.
  • Just 10% of those with less than 12 years of education achieved DFR.
  • The researchers concluded that 'cognitive reserve' is a factor recovery.