Plasiticity & Functional Recovery

Question 1

Define Brain plasticity

Answer 1

The brains tendency to change and adapt (physically and functionally) as a result of experience and new learning

Question 2

Explain brain plasticity as we are children

Answer 2

Babies brains experience rapid growth in synaptic connections (which is why they sleep a lot)
As we age, rarely used connections are deleted and frequently used connections are strengthened
Any time in life neural connections can change as a result of learning and experience

Question 3

Give research supporting the idea of plasticity

Answer 3

Maguire (2000): Studied the brains of London taxi drivers and significantly found more volume of grey matter in the posteriors hippocampus than in a matched control group.
Draganski (2006): He imaged the brains of medical students, 3 months before and after their final exams. Learning induced changes were seen to have occurred in the posterior hippocampus and the parietal cortex
Mechelli(2004): Found a larger parietal cortex in the brains of people who were bilingual compared to matched monolingual controls.

Question 4

Define the term functional recovery

Answer 4

The brains tendency to adapt and change (both functionally and physically) as a result of experience and new learning

Question 5

Explain the processes involved in brain recovery following trauma.

Answer 5

During recovery, the brain is able to rewire and reorganise itself by forming new synaptic connections. Structural changes in the brain occur such as axonal sprouting. This is the growth of new nerve endings which connect with other undamaged nerve cells to form new neuronal pathways.
Followed by the reformation of blood vessels
Lastly, the recruitment of homologous (similar) areas on the opposite side of the brain to perform specific task.

Question 6

Evaluation: Factors affecting plasticity which is age

Answer 6

Functional plasticity tends to reduce with age as this is because the brain has a greater tendency for reorganisation in childhood as it is constantly adapting to new experiences and learning.
However Bezzola et al did 40 hours of golf training with 40-60 year olds and a change was illustrated within neural representations.
FMRI scans showed an increased activity in the motor cortex compared to the control group which demonstrates the effect of training and brain plasticity.
This demonstrates that brain plasticity does continue throughout the lifespan but the ability is reduced with age.

Question 7

Evaluation: Plasticity has contributed to the field of neurohabilitation and led to real world applications.

Answer 7

Following illness or injury to the brain, spontaneous recovery tends to slow down after a number of weeks.
Physical therapy may be required to maintain improvements in functioning e.g. Movement therapy and electrical stimulation of the brain to counter the deficits in motor or Cognitive functioning that may be experienced following a stroke for instance.
This shows that although the brain has the capacity to fix itself to a point requiring further intervention in order to be completely successful.

Question 8

Evaluation: Factors affecting functional recovery: Cognitive Reserve

Answer 8

Schneider et al discovered that the more time brain injuried had spent in education, the greater the chances of a disability free recovery.
40% of patients who achieved a disability free recovery had more than 16 years of education compared to 10% of patients who had less than 12 years of education
These findings demonstrate the influence of individual differences that affects ones ability to recover after brain injury