Plasticity

• Brain plasticity; the brain's ability to adapt over time as a result of new experience and learning; these experiences can include practice, training, or injury
• Synaptic development; during infancy the brain experiences massive in synaptic connections peaking around 15,000 per neurone at 2-3 years old; this is twice that of the adult brain (Gopnik 1999)
• Synaptic pruning is the deleting of rarely used synaptic connections to strengthen frequently used ones
• Functional recovery is a type of plasticity which allows the brain to adapt and have damaged brain area's functions taken over by other brain areas
• Functional recovery can happen quickly via spontaneous recovery then slow down for several weeks or months and may even require rehabilitative therapy
• Axonal sprouting is the growth of new nerve endings which connect with other undamaged nerve cells to form new neuronal pathways
• denervation super-sensitivity is when axons that carry out similar functions are aroused to a higher level to compensate for lost ones however this can have negative consequences such as oversensitivity to certain stimuli
• recruitment of homologous areas on the opposite side of the brain is when the opposite side of the brain adapts and takes over the function of a damaged part on the opposite hemisphere
• Neuronal unmasking is when dormant synapses open connections near damaged areas
• Neuronal unmasking is when dormant synapses open connections near damaged areas
• Types of functional recovery; axonal sprouting, recruitment of homologous areas on the opposite side of the brain, denervation super-sensitivity, and neuronal unmasking
• Maguire (2000) aimed to examine whether structural changes in the brain could be observed in the brains of people who had extensive experience in spatial navigation
• Maguire (2000) used a sample of London Taxi drivers and a matched control group
• Maguire's (2000) London taxi drivers had extensive experience of spatial navigation as they are assed on their recall of specific routes and city streets
• Maguire (2000) found the brains of London taxi drivers had significantly more grey matter in the posterior hippocampus than the control group; this is associated with spatial navigation
• Plasticity strength; Bezzola (2012) observed how 40 years of golf training changed neural representations of movements in participants aged 40-60 showing plasticity continues throughout lifre
• Plasticity strength; Draganski (2006) studied the brains of medical students 3 months before and after their final exams and observed changes in the hippocampus and parietal cortex as a result of learning HOWEVER this study was only correlational
• Plasticity strength; Case study Jody Miller lost use of the left side of her body due to epilepsy; had the right hemisphere of her brain removed however her brain adapted for the actions of the right hemisphere to be taken over by the left showing plasticity HOWEVER case studies are idiographic and hard to generalise
• Functional recovery strength; led to the development of neurorehabilitation such as constraint induced movement therapy for stroke patients showing functional recovery as useful for patients with brain damage
• Plasticity weakness; there are negative effects to plasticity, for example prolonged drug use has been associated with poor cognitive function and dementia showing that plasticity is not always beneficial