Chapter 6 Flashcards
What is Brain development
Brain growth and development are orderly processes but they are subjective
What is Brain development of Myelin, when does it start, when is the most intense period and where does it emerge
- the growth of white, fatty myelin (myelination) around many axons contributes to the increase in brain size
- Myelination starts before birth and continues into adulthood
- most intense period of myelination is shortly after birth
- Myelination normally emerges in the hindbrain then spreads overtime to the midbrain and forebrain
What does Synaptogenesis account for, involve, what is it the meeting points between, where do they occur more rapidly, when do they form, what happens in the first 15 months of being born
- Accounts for most of the brains growth in size
- Involves the formation of new synapses between the brain’s neurons
- Synapses are the meeting points between 2 neurons
- Occurs more rapidly in motor and sensory areas than association areas
- Synapse form long before birth
- In the first 15 months of being born, the number of synapses increase tenfold (ten times)
Why do we need Synaptic Pruning, what happens and where/when
- Since so many synapses are made, some areas are useless- ‘use it or lose it’
- Those synapses are ‘pruned.’ It is a long, fine-tune process where the brain eliminates weak or useless connections
- It happens in different parts of the brain at different ages
What is Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity (or brain plasticity) is the ability for our brain to change in response to experiences
Components of Neuroplasticity
- Developmental plasticity
- Adaptive plasticity
What does Developmental plasticity refer to and what are examples
- Refers to changes in the neural structures within the brain during growth and development
- Synaptogenesis, synaptic pruning, long-term potentiation, and myelination are examples of change in the neural structure
What is Adaptive plasticity, why does it happen, whats could the damage be and what do the two main functions
- Adaptive plasticity is the way in which the brain reorganises neural pathways
- The brain reorganises these pathways as a response to experience, or to compensate for losses caused by damage
- The damage can be a brain injury, through things such as trauma or a stroke, or a degenerative disease like Alzheimer’s or Parkinsons
- There are 2 main functions that help with adaptive plasticity: rerouting and sprouting
What is Sprouting and what is it similar to
- The growth of new, bushier dendrites and the lengthening of axons to form new synaptic connections when old ones are damaged or lost
- Similar to building a new road after a natural disaster
What is Rerouting
- Rerouting is the neuron’s ability to form a new connection with another undamaged neuron
- These roads will take a different route, and will be slightly longer, but they will get you to the city
- it’s the same with rerouting within the brain
What happens when the cerebral cortex or any other part of the brain is injured
- hinders everyday life
- Things like our motor skills, emotional skills, and social skills all get negatively impacted
What does Brain injury refer to, when does most happen, how can it be caused and what can it have (insidious)
- Refers to any type of damage to the brain that interfers with normal functioning, Short-term or long-term
- Most happen after birth and are called acquired brain injury
- Can be caused by an accident , intentional blow, violent shaking of the head, infectioin, stroke, or drug overdose
- Can have insidious onset- where brain injuries develop overtime, showing few symptoms (e.g timor develops in substance abuser)
Types of aquired brain injury
Traumatic brain injuriy
Concussion
**Stroke
**Aphasia*
What is a traumatic brain injury, what does it include, what can it range from, what happens and what can it be from
A type of aquired brain injury caused by a blow to the head or by the head being forced to move forwards and backwards rapidly
normally includes a loss of consiousness
- It can range from a short loss of consiousness (punched) to a long loss of consiousness (coma)
- The brain smacks against the skull and then the brain may bleed, bruise, tear, twist, or become swollen
- Can be from a motor vehicle accident, fall, assault, sporting accident, gunshot wound, or violent shaking
What is a Concussion
- A mild form of TBI resulting from an external forse to the head or body that causes the brain to bounce around inside the skull
