Plasitcity and Recovery of the brain Flashcards
Plasticity
Refers to the brain’s ability to change and create new neural pathways and alter existing ones as a result of experience
Functional recovery
Refers to the recovery of abilities and mental processes that have been comprised as a result of brain injury or disease.
Refers to the transfer of functions from a damaged area of the brain after a TBI to other undamaged areas.
Kuhn et al (2014) (AO1)
Found a significant increase in grey matter in cortex, hippocampus and cerebellum in a group playing Super Mario for 30 mins per day for 2 months compared to a control group
What have researchers concluded from Video gaming?
4 places
Example of plasticity
Video game training had resulted in new synaptic connections in areas involved in spatial navigation, strategic planning, working memory and motor performance.
Davidson et al (2004)
Plasticity
Greater
Indicating?
Compared 8 Tibetan monks meditation Vs 10 students- control group. Found greater gamma wave activity in meditation group Vs control.
indicating that meditation can cause permenant changes.
What have researchers concluded from meditation?
Short term changes in brain activity. Sometimes may permanent changes based on more gamma wave activity before meditating than the control group.
what are the 3 mechanisms the brain does to recovers?
-Swelling reduction
- Axonal sprouting
- Neural Unmasking
-
Functional recovery
Stem cells
Stem cells implanted into the brain may help to treat brain damage by directly replacing damaged cells.
Neuronal unmasking
Method of functional recovery.
‘dormant’ synapses open connections to compensate for a nearby damaged area of the brain.
What is the differences between plasticity and functional recovery
Plasticity = The brains ability to change or create neural pathways and alter existing ones as a result of experience.
Functional recovers = The recovery of abilities and mental processes that have been comprised as a result of brain injury or disease.
AO3
Animal studies support plasticity in response to an enriched enviroment.
Kemperman et al. (1998)
SUPPORT
E: Kemperman et al. (1998) found that rats kept complex enviroments developed more new neurons than rats kept in lab cages.
E: In particular, they showed an increase neurons in the hippocampus, which is associated with learning and navigation.
L: This supports the idea that the number of new neurons can change in adult animals in response to enviromental situation
There is research to support plasticity through human studies (London taxi drivers)
Maguire et al.
PS
E: Maguire et al. measured the grey matter in taxi drivers brains using MRI scanning, and found a positive correlation between the size of their posterior hippocampus and how long they had working as a taxi driver.
E: This was a way of operationalising their navigational experience.
L: This shows that the more navigationals experience the drivers had, the larger the posterior hippocamus had become, supporting plascitiy in response to experience
Functional plasticity reduces with age
PS
How can adults show functional recovering?
capicity in kids
E: So adults may need to develop compensatory behaviour strategies to deal with cognitive deficits, such as writing lists or seeking social support.
E: However, adults can still show functional recovery with intense retraining and extensive practice.
E: But the capcity for neural reorganisaton is much greater in children than adults.
Paitents with college level educational attaianment are much more likely to recover well after TBI.
Scneider et al.
FR
E: Scneider et al. retrospectiely examined data from the US TBI database.
E: Nearly 40% of paitents will college level education achieved disability-free recovery after a year, compared to less than 10% of paitents who left school early.
L: The researchers concluded that ‘cogntive reverse’ could be a factor in neural adaptation during recovery from TBI
