Plasticity

Question 1

Brain plasticity

Answer 1

the brain’s abiity to alter its structure and function in reaction to the environment and through experience

Question 2

Brain plasticity process

Answer 2

1. Impulses travel along neurons and travel to the next neuron via a synapse
2. neural pathways are created as new information is passed from one neuron to another
3. the more the neural pathways are used, the stronger the pathway becomes
4. if the pathway is not used regularly, the connection weakens

Question 3

Maguire et al

Answer 3

studied taxi drivers in London to discover whether changes in the brain could be detected as a result of their extensive navigational experience

• natural experiment

• uses an MRI scanner

• the posterior hippocampi of taxi drivers were significantly larger than those of the control groups

• it was positively correlated with the amount of time they spent taxi driving

• the longer they had been a taxi driver, the greater the volume of grey matter