Plasticity Flashcards
what is brain plasticity
- brain’s ability to change throughout life
- neural connections change throughout life, not just in infancy
What is synaptic pruning?
rarely used connections are deleted
- frequent connections are strengthened
What was Maguire’s research into brain plasticity?
- London taxi drivers had more grey matter in posterior hippocampus than matched control
- longer in job=more defined structure difference
What was Draganski’s research into brain plasticity?
- med student brain images three months pre/post final exams
- learning=change in posterior hippocampus/parietal cortex
What was Mechelli’s research into brain plasticity?
- found larger parietal cortex in bilingual people vs matched monolingual control
How does the brain functionally recover after trauma?
- injury/trauma=unaffected areas adapt for damaged (functional recovery)
- quickly after trauma (spontaneous recovery)
- slows down=rehab therapy needed
What structural changes occur during functional recovery?
- Axonal sprouting: nerve endings grow/connect=new pathways
- Reformation of blood vessels
- Recruit similar area on other hemisphere
What are the evaluation points of brain plasticity
- practical applications
- negative plasticity
- support from animal studies
- concept of cognitive reserve
What are the practical applications of brain plasticity?
- contributes to neurorehabilitation
- physical therapy after spontaneous recovery
- brain can’t fully heal alone
What is the negative plasticity evaluative point of brain plasticity
- behavioural consequences e.g long drug use=cognitive function down
- risk of dementia up
- 60-80% amputees=phantom limb syndrome=unpleasant
What is the support from animal studies for brain plasticity?
Hubel/Wiesel: sew one kitten eye shut;analyse brain response=visual cortex area of closed eye not idle;continued to process info from open eye
