eval plastcity

Question 1

One strength is that brain plasticity may be life

Answer 1

One strength is that brain plasticity may be life long ability.

In general brain plasticity reduces with age. Ladina Bezzola et al showed how 40 hours of gold training produced changes in free neural representations of movement in participants aged 40 - 60.

Using firm the researchers observed increased motor cortex activity in the novice golfers compared to a control group suggesting efficient neural representation after training.

This shows that neural plasctity can continue thourogouyt the lifespan.

Question 2

libation behavioural

Answer 2

One limitation of plasticity is that it may have negative behavioural consequences.

Medina et al increase brains adaptation to increased prolong drug use leads to poorer cognitive functions in later life and higher risk of dementia

This suggests the brains ability to adapt to risk isn’t always benefical

Question 3

Eval seasonal

Answer 3

Research suggests that there may be seasonal plasticity in the brain in response to environmental changes – in other words at different times of the year the brain changes to fit changes in the environment such as changing day length. For example, consider the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) which controls and regulates the sleep/wake cycle. There is evidence that this particular brain structure shrinks in all animals during spring and expands throughout autumn, and this is something that applies to all animals, including humans (Tramontin and Brenowitz 2000). This enables better adaption to day length.

However, much of the work on seasonal plasticity has been done on animals, most notably songbirds. Although very similar biological mechanisms exist across species that control the sleep/wake cycle (known as endogenous pacemakers), it is debatable whether human and bird pacemakers work in exactly the same way. One reason is that human behaviour generally is more under conscious control and therefore there would be less adaptive pressure to develop biological mechanisms to fit the environment.

This suggests that animal research may be a useful starting point but more research on the human brain is required to establish the effect of seasonal changes in humans.

Question 4

Eval sample size

Answer 4

There is strong support for new treatments to aid functional recovery. For instance, a study by Soma Banerjee et al. (2014) treated patients who had a total anterior circulation stoke (TACS) with stem cells. All patients in this trial recovered compared to the more typical level of just 4% recovery. Such data provides strong support for the use of stem cells as a means of helping functional recovery.

However this study drew conclusions based on just five patients. In general small samples mean that the conclusions may not be generalisable to all people. There was also no control group – ideally we should be able to compare stem cell treatment with a matched group who received a different treatment. However it is difficult to ‘match’ patients in terms of the extent of their neurological damage, as individual cases may be very different from one another.

This means that research may lack validity, making it difficult to draw conclusions – but waiting for larger samples may prevent the development of valuable treatments.