Brain plasticity and functional recovery

• What is plasticity

  The ability of the brain to change and adapt its structure as a result of differing experiences.
• What is functional recovery

  Recovery of abilities and mental processes that have been compromised as a result of brain injury/disease.
• what happens when an individual gains new experiences

  They develop strong neural connections.
• What does brain plasticity mean the brain can do

  adapt to new skills and environments
• Why is there a Natural decline in cognitive functioning with age due to?

  
  

  changes in the brain
• What did boyke et al find

  Found evidence in 60-year-olds wen taught the new skill of juggling. This increased the grey matter in the visual cortex but changes were reversed when practiced stopped.
• What does Boyke et al’s study suggest

  You have to do it constantly therefore supports plasticity.
• what did kuhn et al find

  Find a significant increase in grey matter in your cortex hippocampus and cerebellum in a group playing super mario kart for 30 minutes a day for 2 months compared to a control group.
• What had video game training resulted in?

  new synaptic connections
• what does Kuhn et al‘s study suggest

  The brain creates new connections and adapts
• What did Maguire et al find

  That using MRI scanning found that the posterior hippocampi of London taxi drivers was significantly larger than a control group.
• Is it true or false that by the end of the first year of your life the Brian has more neurons and synapses than it does in late adulthood

  true
• why does the new born brain produce more neurons and synapses than needed

  So that the brain has the flexibility to learn all kinds of things from experiences environments and stimulis.
• What happens if pathways and networks are not used regularly

  Those not used will die off
• What did Blakemore and Mitchell find in 1973

  Plasticity based on early experience in young kittens.

  Those reared in an environment of black vertical stripes could not recognise black horizontal stripes and those reared in an environment of horizontal stripes could not recognise black vertical stripes.
• What does functional recovery after brain trauma refer to?

  the brains ability to move functions performed by one area of the brain when there’s damage to the other area
• What happens if one part of the brain is damaged or destroyed

  Neurons next to the damaged area can form new circuit and resume some of the lost function.
• what can trauma be caused through

  Physical trauma, cerebral haemorrhage, cerebral ischaemia or Viral/bacterial infection.
• What is swelling reduction in terms of a mechanism of recovery?

  Often significant recovery after swelling caused by trauma starts to reduce swelling of Brian teach you can affect behaviour.
• What is axonal sprouting in terms of a mechanism of recovery?

  Surviving neurons grow new branches that make up synapses in areas of the brain formally supplied by the damage neurons.
• who identified neural masking in terms of a mechanism of recovery

  wall in 1977 - Identified dormant synapses being ineffective as rate of neural input is too low.
• What can happen when increasing the rate of input into the synapses after trauma in surrounding neurons do?

  Open connections to areas of the brain that are not normally activated.
• What is age in terms of a mechanism of recovery?

  Tueber studied brain damage in soldiers and found recovery for movement invasion over 20 years was age-dependent.
• What were the findings of tueber study in relation to age being a mechanism of recovery?

  60% of those under 20 showed significant improvements and 20% of those over 26 showed similar recovery.
• What are stem cells in terms of a mechanism of recovery?

  Stem cells might be implanted in the brain to directly replace dead cells. transplanted stem cells secrete growth factors that somehow rescue damage cells.
• What is the research to support in this topic

  Tajiri et al found after three months, brains of rats showed development of neurons In the area of injury accompanied by a steady stream of stem cells migrating to the site of injury from other areas of the brain.

  However this wasnt found in the control group
• What is another research to support in this topic

  danelli et al ( case of EB) - EB Was operated on at the age of 2 1/2 years to remove a large benign tumour from his left hemisphere so virtually all of the left hemisphere was removed.
• At the time what abilities disappeared from the case of EB.

  linguistic until He had intensive rehabilitation programmes in languages. Where his linguistic ability started to improve at the age of five.
• True or false at the age of eight EB had no problems in his linguistic abilities

  true
• What was found at the age of 17 for EB

  His right hemisphere had compensated for the left hemisphere and he was functioning linguistically well with a few minor grammatical issues.