Plasticity and Function Flashcards
Define plasticity.
The brain’s ability to change and adapt because of new experience, learning or injury etc.
What is functional recovery?
The transfer of functions from a damaged area of the brain after trauma to other undamaged areas.
How does functional recovery occur?
The brain rewires itself and forms new connections close to the damaged area.
Define neuronal unmasking.
‘Dormant’ or unused synapses open connections to make up for a nearby damaged area of the brain.
Define axonal sprouting.
Damaged neurons form new axons to reconnect with undamaged neurons to rejoin damaged pathways or form new pathways.
What is recruitment of other brain areas?
Similar structures of the opposite side of the brain will perform the function from the other side if damaged.
Give an advantage of plasticity.
+Supporting evidence from maguire.
he found that taxi drivers developed a larger hippocampus due to the required knowledge.
+Kuhn found that there was a significant increase in grey matter in certain areas of the brain after playing video games daily.
This may be used to explain the influence of video games on behaviour, therefore has high practical validity.
Give a disadvantage of placidity.
-Maguires findings are correlational so we cannot establish cause and effect.
Also has low population validity as it is based on male taxi drivers from London.
-Flawed methodology, a lot of research studies are lab experiments.
however, brain scanning techniques can be accurate and also demonstrate causation.
Give an advantage of functional recovery.
+Supporting evidence from Tajiri.
Found that stem cells in rats specialised to neurons and concentrated in the area of injury.
Give a disadvantage of functional recovery.
-Findings to support functional recovery come from animal studies (Tajiri).
Difficulty extrapolating the findings, lacks population validity.
-Functional recovery can deteriorate with age, e.g. Corkin found that neural recognition is much more common in children than adults.
Functional recovery must be researched on an individualistic basis, the use of case studies. The findings may lack ecological validity.
