Lesson 9 - Plasticity and Functional Recovery Flashcards
What is brain plasticity
• Brain’s ability to change and adapt as a result of experience
• Plasticity allows brain to cope better with indirect effects of damage such as from a haemorrhage or stroke
Plasticity in life experience
• Nerve pathways used frequently develop stronger connections
• Developing new connections/reducing weak ones allows brain to adapt to changing environment
• Decline in cognitive functioning w/ age attributed to these changes
• Boyke et al(2008) taught 60 year olds juggling
-increased grey matter in visual cortex
Plasticity in video games
• Kuhn et al(2014) compared control group to group who played Super Mario
-for 30 mins a day for 2 months
• Found playing caused significant increase in grey matter in
-visual cortex
-hippocampus
-cerebellum
• Playing video games results in new synaptic connections in brain areas involved in
-spatial navigation
-strategic planning
-working memory
-motor performance
Plasticity in meditation
• Davidson et al(2004) compared 8 practitioners of Tibetan meditation with 10 students (no experience)
• EEG picked up greater gamma wave activity in monks before meditating began
-gamma waves coordinate neural activity
+ Neurological evidence in rats
Kempermann et al(1998)
• Found more new neurons in brains of rats in complex environments compared to those housed in basic cages
• Increase in neurons most prominent in hippocampus
-involved in forming of new long-term memories & ability to navigate
+ Neurological evidence in London taxi drivers
Maguire et al(2000)
• Hippocampus in taxi drivers significantly larger when measuring grey matter via MRI scan compared to control group
• Positively correlated with extent of life experience
What is functional recovery
• Form of plasticity
• After brain damage
- brain can transfer functions
-usually performed by damaged areas
-to other areas
What is the transfer of brain functions to undamaged areas called
Neural reorganisation
What is neural regeneration
• Growth of new neurons and/or axons & dendrites
• Compensates for damaged areas
• Axon sprouting occurs
What is axon sprouting
• New nerve endings grow
• Connect with other undamaged nerve cells
• Forms new neural pathways
+ Phantom limb syndrome
• PLS is the continued experience of sensation in a missing limb
• Caused by neural reorganisation in somatosensory cortex during limb loss
• Evidence of neural reorganisation
- Hubel and Torten Wisel(1963) and what they did to a kitten, poor guy
• Sewed one eye shut
• Analysed brain’s cortical response
• Found visual cortex for shut eye continued to process info from open eye
• Further evidence of neural reorganisation
