Biopsychology : Plasticity & Functional Recovery Flashcards
What does plasticity mean?
Means that it can change and adapt over time from experiences and new learning.
How had the view on plasticity changed?
It was first thought that these changes were only in the developing childhood brain and the adult brain would remain fixed in function and structure, due to having moved beyond a critical period. Research shows that the brain continues to create neural pathways and alter existing one in response to changing experiences.
What research is there into plasticity?
Research shows that enriched and impoverish environments can affect the physical structure of the brain…
→ Romanian orphanages
→ Davidson et al (2004) Monk gamma
→ Rosenweig et al (1972) enriched rats
→ Boyke et al (2008) decline w age
→ Draganski et al (2006) exams
→ Mechelli et al (2006) bilingual
What did Davidson et al (2004) study?
Found that Tibetan monks had increased gamma waves (coordinate neuronal activity) when meditating, showing long term changes
What did Rosenweig et al (1972) study?
found that the brains of highly enriched rats had considerably larger neurons and heavier and thicker cerebral cortex’s version impoverished rats
What did Boyke et al (2008) study?
found there is a natural decline in cognitive functioning with age. He found that 60 y.o’s had increased grey matter in the visual cortex when learning to juggle and it decreased when they stopped
What did Draganski et al (2006) study?
imaged the brains of medical students 3 months before and after their final exams. Learning-induced changes were seen in the posterior hippocampus and the parietal cortex, presumably as a result of studying for exams.
What did Mechelli et al (2006) study?
found a larger parietal cortex in the brains of people who were bilingual vs matched monolingual controls
Maguire et al (2000) - overview
studied the brain of London taxi drivers and found significantly more volume of grey matter in the posterior hippocampus than in a matched control group. This part of the brain is associated with the development of spatial and navigation skills in humans and other animals. The spatial learning of the taxi drivers ‘Knowledge’ test (recall of city streets and possible routes) alters the structure of the taxi drivers’ brains.
Maguire et al (2000) - Aim
To investigate…
Maguire et al (2000) - Procedure
16 healthy right-handed males who were licensed taxi drivers were compared to 50 healthy, right-handed non taxi diver males. An MRI was used to detect changed in the structure of the brain as a result of their experience.
Maguire et al (2000) - Findings
the taxi drivers had a larger posterior hippocampus compared to the controls and the controls hand a larger anterior hippocampus.
Maguire et al (2000) - Conclusion
Correlations are not causal but it implies that it is the experience of being a taxi driver that changes the brain (at least in the hippocampus).
What’s functional recovery?
A form of plasticity where after damage from trauma, the brain is able to redistribute functions normally performed by now damaged areas to undamaged areas.
Mechanisms in which a change can occur - Neural reorganisaton
Healthy brain areas may take over the functions of those areas that are damaged, destroyed or even missing (neural re-organisation). → recruitment of homologous areas is when a homologous (similar) area of the brain on the opposite side is used to perform a specific task.