plasticity and functional recovery

• plasticity - due to changes in the environment and the brain adapts makign changes to both function and structure
• traumatic event resulting in physical damage - hemoraging and swelling
• functional recovery - healthy areas are compensating for the damaged areas
• new info - creates new pathways - stronger when they are used more
• synaptic pruning - removal of neurons that are no longer being used
• regeneration - growth of new neurons and connections
• denervation supersensitivity - response to loss of axons to make the rest more sensitive
• factors affecting functional recovery - age - gender - access to therapy
• maguire et al - taxi drivers - larger hippocampi - increased grey matter - suggests brain pasticity
• danelli et al - resilaince of brain to trauma - infant eb tumor whole left side of brain removed - recovered use of language over two years - fmri scans showed right followed a left like blueprint for language
• pro - practical app - rehab therapies
• pro - deeper understanding and increased research