Plasticity and Functional Recovery

• Plasticity definition

  • describes the brain's ability to adapt as a result of an experience
  • the brain continues to create new neural pathways and alter existing ones in response to changing experiences and new learning or training
• Functional recovery

  • a form or plasticity where following damage through trauma, the brain's ability to redistribute or transfer functions usually performed by a damaged area to other, undamaged ones
• Synaptic pruning

  • unused synaptic connections destroyed
• Neurogensis/axonal sprouting

  • growing new neurons/axons
• Plasticity

  • in infancy, the brain rapidly increases the number of synaptic connections
  • as a child you have twice as many as an adult brain
  • peaks at 15,000 at 2-3 years old
  • research suggests that at any time in life, existing neural connections can change/new connections can be formed as a result of learning and experiences
  • evidence has shown that plasticity can occur as a result of life experiences like learning a new skill, having a skilled job, playing video games and meditation
• Synaptogenesis

  • making new connections between neurons
• Plasticity as a result of life experiences

  • as people gain new experiences, nerve pathways that are used frequently develop stronger connections, whereas neurons that are rarely or never used eventually die
  • this allows the brain to constantly adapt to a changing environment
  • there is also a natural decline in cognitive functioning with age that can be attributed to changes in the brain
  • connections can be made to reverse this effect
  • Boyke et al (2008) - found evidence of brain plasticity in 60-year-olds taught juggling and found an increase in grey matter in the visual cortex, although when practicing stopped, these changes were reversed
• Maguire

  • taxi drivers have a bigger hippocampus as a result of having a skilled job
• Kuhn

  • playing Super Mario for 30 mins increased grey matter
  • found no grey matter in the control group
• Meditation - Davidson et al

  • found that Tibetan monks had more brain activity than student volunteers
• Animal Research

  • Kempermann et al gave one group of rat's a complex and enriching house and another groups standard lab cages
  • rats with complex environments had a larger hippocampus, supporting plasticity
  • they argue that this was because of the need for memory and spatial and navigation skills
• Evaluation

  • there are individual differences in the ability to recover lost functions
  • Elbert et al (2001) found that children learn quicker than adults, arguing that children have a great capacity for neural reorganisation than adults
  • Schneider et al (2014) - college graduates were 7 times more likely to recover from moderate to severe brain injruy that those who did not finish highschool