Plasticity^ Flashcards
Brain Plasticity
brain can change through a life
Gopnik et al
- infancy: rapid growth in lots of synaptic connections (15000)
- ageing: the connections rarely used are deleted
: most used are strengthened
Synaptic pruning - allows for lifelong brain plasticity
Maguire et al
Brain studies on two groups with MRIs
- 16 Lon taxi drivers
- control group of 50
Findings
- more grey matter in posterior hippocampus of drivers
- the area of the development of spatial and navigational skills
Drivers did a knowledge test
- learning it changed the structure of their brain
- the longer the job = more diff structure
Negative Plasticity
Medina et al
- brain adapting to long drug use
- leads to poor cognitive functioning and maybe dementia
Ramachandran & Hirstein- 60-80% of amputees develop phantom limb syndron
: sensantion in the missing limb
- the result of cortical reorganisation in the somatosensory cortex after losing limb
Supporting Research
Draganski et al
- similar results to Maguire
- study the brains of medical students before and after an exam
- their posterior hippocampus and parietal cortex had changed
: due to learning
Negative Plasticity
Medina et al
- brain adapting to long drug abuse leads to poor cognitive functioning and maybe dementia
Ramachandran & Hirstein
- 60 to 80% of amputes develop phantom limb syndrome
- result of cartical reorganisation in the somatosensory cortex after losing limb
Age & Plasticity
Lifelong ability
Bezzola et al
- 40 hours of gold training
- change in neural representations of movement of participant
- fMRIs results show there are more efficient neural representations after gold training
: scans show a reduced activity of motor cortex in novice golfers VS control group
Seasonal Brain Changes
Tramontin & Brenowitz
- the suprachiasmatic nucleus regulates the sleep wake cycle
- found to shrink during spring
- expand in autumn
: due to seasonal changes in all animals, the studies are usually conducted on animals
