Plasticity And Functional Recovery

Question 1

Plasticity

Answer 1

This refers the brain’s ability to change and adapt because of experience

Question 2

Maguire et al

Answer 2

• to become a licensed taxi driver in London, you demonstrate knowledge of streets and traffic patterns so that they can effectively navigate between any two points.
• in this study, brain scans were taken of a sample of 16 London taxi drivers. He found that they all had particularly large posterior hippocampus, a region of the brain that supports two-dimensional spatial processing. There was also a correlation between number of years of experience and hippocampus size.
• the results provide support for the idea of brain plasticity and suggest that experience (driving a taxi) can change the structure of the brain (enlarged hippocampus)

Question 3

Draganski et al

Answer 3

• he investigated medical students revising for exams.
• students were given periodical MRI scans
• they found that during the intense periods of revision and exams, the grey matter increased significantly, having a larger parietal cortex and hippocampus.
• three months later, no further structural changes were seen

Question 4

Plasticity can also be negative…

Answer 4

• examples of this can include prolonged drug use leading to poorer cognitive functioning and old age being associated with dementia.
• both are as a result of changes in the brain

Question 5

Functional recovery

Answer 5

This refers to the transfer of function from a damaged area of the brain after trauma to other undamaged areas

Question 6

Functional recovery in action

Answer 6

Scientists have looked closely at this process and concluded that the brain undergoes a process of rewiring by forming new synaptic connections.
-secondary neural pathways near the trauma are activated or unmasked to allow function to continue functioning despite the damage.
-new pathways are formed through the growth of new nerve endings (axonal sprouting) and the re-formation of blood vessels serving the brain.
-there can also be recruitment of homologous (similar) areas on the opposite side of the brain to perform specific tasks

Question 7

Josie is twelve. She was in a road accident and suffered head injuries that caused problems with speech and understanding language. A year later, she had recovered mostly.
Using knowledge of functional recovery and plasticity, explain her recovery

Answer 7

Our brains can adapt and change based on , such as
or trauma. In Josie’s case, her accident caused damage to areas of her brain that dealt with speech and language and new neural pathways had to be created around the damaged areas in order to recover these abilities. This might have involved axonal sprouting where new neurons make new connections by growing axons around a lesion, or recruitment of homologous areas or reformation of blood vessels. Josie’s age may have helped her to have a more speedy recover as research has shown that children demonstrate more plasticity than older adults as their brains are constantly exposed to new experiences.