Plasticity And Functional Recovery

• Plasticity


  •Plasticity describes the brain’s tendency to change and adapt (functionally and structurally) as a result of experience (positive or negative), new learning or training. It is also referred to as neuroplasticity and cortical remapping.•Recent research suggested that plasticity occurs throughout the life span; existing neural connections can change or new neural connections can be formed as a result of learning and experience.
• Plasticity

  •However, functional plasticity tends to reduce with age. The brain has a greater propensity for reorganisation in childhood as it is constantly adapting to new experiences and learning.•During infancy, the brain experiences a rapid growth in the number of synaptic connections it has, peaking at approximately 15,000 at 2-3 years. As we age, rarely used connections are deleted and frequently used connections are strengthened. This process is called synaptic pruning.
• Negative Plasticity

  •60-80% of amputees have been known to develop phantom limb syndrome. These sensations are usually unpleasant, painful and are thought to be due to cortical reorganisation of the somatosensory cortex as a result of the limb loss.••Prolonged drug use has been shown to result in poorer cognitive functioning as well as an increased risk of dementia later in life.•
• Functional recovery of the brain after trauma

  •Following damage through trauma, functional recovery is the brain’s ability to redistribute or transfer functions usually performed by a damaged area(s) to other, undamaged area(s). I.e. the brain changes functionally (and sometimes structurally) as a result of the experience of trauma.•This is another form of neural plasticity.•Neurologists suggest that this process can occur very quickly after trauma (spontaneous recovery) and then slow down after several weeks or so.
• What happens to the brain during recovery?

  •The transfer of functions to undamaged areas is known as neural reorganisation, and this can often explain how people are able to recover from trauma. ••New neurons may grow and/or new connections may grow to compensate for the damaged areas where neurons are lost. This is known as neural regeneration (or axon sprouting), and can explain how people are able to recover from trauma.•Reformation of blood vessels supports the new connections made.•Recruitment of homologous areas on the opposite side of the brain to perform specific tasks.
• Eval

  Schneider et al. (2014) found that patients with the equivalent of a college education are seven times more likely than those who didn’t finish high school to be disability-free one year after a moderate to severe brain injury.
• Eval

  Prolonged drug use has been shown to result in poorer cognitive functioning as well as an increased risk of dementia later in life. Also, 60-80% of amputees have been known to develop phantom limb syndrome – the continued experience of sensations in the missing limb as if it were still there. These sensations are usually unpleasant, painful and are thought to be due to cortical reorganisation in the somatosensory cortex that occurs as a result of limb loss.