brain plasticity

Question 1

brain plasticy

Answer 1

brain appears to be plastic as it has potential to change through life
during infancy brain experiences growth in number of synaptic connections it has, peaking approximately 15% at age of 2-3 years

Question 2

functional recovery

Answer 2

after physical injury or other forms or trauma, unaffected areas of brain can compensate for those that are damaged. This can quickly occur after trauma and then slow down after a few weeks or months.

Question 3

what happens in brain during recovery

Answer 3

brain can rewire and reorganise by forming new synaptic connections close to area of damage.
secondary neural pathways that wouldn’t typically carry out functions are activated to enable functioning to continue.
includes axonal sprouting, reformation or blood vessels and recruitment of homologous areas on opposite side of brain

Question 4

axonal sprouting

Answer 4

when undamaged axons sprout or grow new nerve endings to replace the old ones in order to reconnect to other neurons

Question 5

neurol unmasking

Answer 5

when damage occurs dormant synapses become activated to take on the function that was lost because of brain damage

Question 6

recruitment of homologous areas

Answer 6

where similar areas sometimes in the other hemisphere are used when an area of the brain is damages

Question 7

maguire

Answer 7

studied brain of London taxi drives and found significantly more 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 navigational skills in humans and other animals.
there was a positive correlation between size of posterior hippocampus and the time as a taxi driver.
The amount of time spent in the job was positively correlated with structural differences in their brain compared to the control group.

Question 8

gender affecting recovery of the brain after trauma

Answer 8

women recover better than men (functioned is not as lateralised)
women tend to perform better in language, memory and attention skills.
men tend to perform better in visual skills (Ratcliffe)

Question 9

age

Answer 9

brain deteriorates with age, affecting the extent and speed of recovery.
older patients regain less function than younger ones and are more likely to see a decline in function in the 5 years following brain injury.

Question 10

perseverance

Answer 10

the individual with the brain injury should work at doing the best they can to aid recovery.
allowing rest where necessary but also making use of the damaged part of the brain.

Question 11

evaluation

Answer 11

individual differences-cant generlise
case study-danelli et all
research has proves jt
rehabilitation programmes can be developed and are successful.