brain plasticity

• the brain‘s capacity to reorganise and adapt after damage
• the brain can develop new neural connections due to learning, experience and the environment
• brain develops and changes throughout our lives
• between ages 2-3, brain has 15000 synaptic connections - twice as many as an adult brain
• as we age, rarely used connections are pruned whilst the ones we use are strengthened
• ✔️ maguire et al - london taxi drivers and their big hippocampi


  significant difference of grey matter in taxi drivers‘ hippocampi compared to non taxi drivers

  • grey matter associated with the development of spatial and navigational skills in humans and animals

  environment shapes biology - the longer the drivers had been in service, the larger the grey matter

  evidence against localisation, evidence of plasticity/interactionism
• ✔️ mechelli

  bilinguals have a developed parietal cortex compared to monolinguals

  evidence to counter localisation, evidence to support plasticity
• ✔️ boyle

  at 60+, learning a new skill = increased neural growth in visual cortex

  learning and new experiences cause new neural pathways to strengthen - brains adapt to changing environment/experiences
• ✔️ kuhn - playing video games for 30+ minutes a day = increased brain matter in cortex, hippocampus and cerebellum 


  complex cognitive demands of mastering video games - formation of new synaptic connections in brainsites that control spatial navigation
• X neuroplasticity declines with age

  lu et al - over the years, as the body becomes less flexible, so does the brain
• X non humans‘ brains can’t reshape itself enough to learn a new skills - brain plasticity can only go so far