4.2.2 - Plasticity And Functional Recovery

Question 1

What is brain plasticity?

Answer 1

• if a brain has plasticity, it means that it can change and adapt overtime

Question 2

Research into plasticity: maguire (2000)

Answer 2

• studied the brains of London taxi drivers, found more volume of grey matter in the posterior hippocampus when compared to matched control group
• this part of brain is associated with the development of specials and navigation skills (also important for memory)
• appears that the spatial learning changed the structure of the brain of taxi drivers after taking the ‘knowledge test’

Question 3

Research into plasticity: Draganski (2006)

Answer 3

· Imaged the brains of medical students 3 months before and
after their final exams.
·learning-induced changes were seen to have occurred in the
Prosterior hippocampus and the parietal cortex, presumably as a result of studying for exams.

Question 4

Research into exams: Michelli (2004)

Answer 4

· found a larger parietal cortex in the brains of people
who were bilingual compared to matched monolingual
Controls.

Question 5

What is functional recovery

Answer 5

• following physical injury or trauma such as stroke, unaffected areas of the brain are often able to adapt and compensate for those areas that are damaged.
• functional recovery is an example of neural plasticity
• this process can occur quickly after trauma (spontaneous recovery) ad then slow down after several weeks/ months. Once recovery has slowed the patient may require rehabilitative therapy such as learning to walk again.

Question 6

What is axonal sprouting

Answer 6

The growth of new nerve ending which connect with other
undamaged nerve cells to form neural pathways.

Question 7

What is the reformation of blood cells

Answer 7

the brain needs blood to function, after trauma (eg: stroke/head injury) the blood vessels in the brain can be damaged, so the blood vessels re-form to supply the brain with sufficient blood.

Question 8

What is recruitment of homologous (similar areas)

Answer 8

• A third structural change in the brain would be a recruitment of homologous areas
• This is when a homologus area of the brain on the opposite side is used to perform a specific task
• eg: if the Brocas area was damaged (left-side), the right side equivalent would carry out its function as well as performing its original function also.
• After a period of time, functionality may mean then shift back to the left Side.

Question 9

What are the three types of structural change/ functional recovery

Answer 9

1) axonal sprouting
2) reformation or blood cells
3) remitment of homologous

Question 10

How to evaluate brain plasticity

Answer 10

Plasticity is almost ‘proven’ so there are o explicit limitations, instead critiques of the research methods or strengths of the theory such as RLA

Question 11

Brain plasticity A03: practical application

Answer 11

• understanding the process involved in plasticity has contributed to the field of neurorehabilitation.
• spontaneous recovery that follows injury to the brain tends to slow down after a few weeks/months, so physical therapy may be required to maintain improvements in functioning
• eg: movement therapy, electrical stimulation of the brain to counter defects in motor and cognitive functioning.

Question 12

Brain plasticity A03: negative plasticity

Answer 12

• the brains ability to rewire itself can sometimes have maladaptive behavioural consequences. (Which are knows as the negatives to plasticity however the knowledge of brain plasticity allows us to understand why they occur)
• despite maladaption not being a good thing, examples of it occuring supports the theory of the brains plasticity.
• Medina et al (2007) found that prolonged use of marijuana resulted in poor cognitive functioning as well as an Increased dementia risk.
• 60-80% of amputees have phantom limb syndrome. These sensations are usually painful and are thought to be due to cortical restoration in the sensory cortex, that occurs as a
  result of limb loss, example of brain plasticity

Question 13

Brain plasticity A03: age and plasticity

Answer 13

· functional plasticity tends to reduce with age. The brain has a greater ability to reorganise in childhood as it is constantly adapting to new experiences and learning.
· however: Bezzola et al (2012) found that to hours of 90’s training produced changes in the neural representation of movement in ppts aged 70 - 60
· using GMRI, she observed reduced motor cortex activity in the novice golfers compared to the control group which suggests a more efficient neural representation after training.