BRAIN PLASTICITY Flashcards
what is brain plasticity?
refers to the brains ability to func and phy change and adapt due to new learning and experiences
when do the brain changes occur throughout life?
infancy
2-3 years old
adulthood
what brain change occurs during infancy?
brain experience rapid growth in synaptic connections
what brain change occurs during ages 2-3?
number of syn con peaks at 15k
how many synaptic connections do we have during adulthood?
7.5k due to synaptic pruning
what is synaptic pruning?
rarely used synaptic connection deleted and freq used ones are strengthened
what 3 pieces of research must we remember in brain plastcity?
Gopnik et al
Maguire et al
Draginski et al
what did Gopnik say?
brain is like plastic and can change seen through 2-3 years brain change
Gopnik et al states that _____ _____ allows _____ ________
synaptic pruning enables lifelong plasticity
Gopnik et al says that new neural connections are formed in response to…
new demands
what did Maguire et al say about taxi drivers?
significant volume of grey matter in posterior hippocampus
what is the posterior hippocampus involved in in Maguire’s research?
involved with development of spatial and navigational skills in humans and animals
Maguire also found that the longer…
someone has been a taxi driver, the more pronounced the structural difference is showing a positive correlation
what did Draginski et al study?
brain scans in medical student 3 months before and after final exams
what were the results of Draginski et al’s study?
learning induced changes in posterior hippocampus and parietal cortex due to result of exam
what are 2 evaluation points for brain plasticity?
+ accounts for age differences
- ignores negative behavioural consequences
one strength of brain plasticity is that it accounts for…
age differences
what was previously said regarding plasticity and age?
functional plasticity decreased with age, for example childhood is rapid changes
what was previously said about func plasticity and childhood?
childhood have more chance of reorganisation as constantly learning and have new experiences
how does Bezzola et al challenge previous views on age and plasticity?
conducted research on those who had golf training and how it changed neural representations of movement
how did Bezzola et al track changes in neural representation of movement?
fMRI scans
what did Bezzola et al’s fMRI scans find about those who had 40 hours of golf training in comp to control?
reduced motor cortex activities suggesting more efficient neural representations after training
Bezzola et al’s research increases…
external validity and population validity of brain plasticity
a weakness of brain plasticity is…
there are negative behavioural consequences of brain plasticity
why can there be negative behavioural consequences of brain plasticity?
prolonged drug use leads to lower cog func and there is and greater chance of dementia
what did Medina et al find?
prolonged drug use leads to poorer cog func, greater chance of dementia
what negative behavioural consequence did Ramachandran et al find?
60-80% of amputees experience phantom limb syndrome where they experience extreme pain
