Plasticity and Functional Recovery AO1 & AO3 Flashcards
Define Plasticity
The brains ability to change and adapt due to new learning experiences
What are the 3 stages of brain changes?
1) Infancy - rapid growth of synaptic connections
2) 2-3 years old - No. synaptic connections peak at approx 15,000
3) Adulthood - No. synaptic connections is approx 7,500 and synaptic pruning begins to occur
What does synaptic pruning enable?
life long plactisity
Who developed the stages of brain changes?
Gopnik et al (1999)
Who studied the brains of London taxi drivers?
Maguire et al
What did Maguire et al find?
There was significantly more volume of grey matter in the posterior hippocampus in the taxi drivers.
So, learning experiences alter the structure of the brain and the longer the drivers had their jobs the more pronounced the structural differences were.
What is the Posterior hippocampus thought to be involved in?
The development of spatial and navigation skills
Who conducted a study into medical students?
Draganski et al (2006)
What did Draganski find?
Medical Student’s brains altered in the posterior hippocampus and the parietal cortex - Learning induced changes
Define Functional Recovery
Recovery of the brain after brain trauma (often due to physical injury)
Areas of the brain are often able to adapt and compensate for the damaged areas
What is Functional Recovery also known as?
Neural Plasticity - healthy brain areas might take over the functions of the damaged areas
What do neuroscientists suggest abt neural plasticity?
That recovery is up to individual differences
What did Doidge (2007) say about Brain Recovery?
Secondary neural pathways that would not typically be used to carry out certain functions are activated
What is Axonal Sprouting?
The growth of new nerve endings which connect w/ other undamaged nerve cells to form new neural pathways
When does Denervation Super Sensitivity occur?
When axons that do similar jobs become aroused to a higher level to compensate for ones that are lost
What is Recruitment of Homologous?
When specific tasks can still be preformed
Research into Plasticity and Functional Recovery has contributed to the development of neurorehabilitation.
Why is this still a weakness in terms of Practical Application?
AO3
Spontaneous recovery tends to slow down after a few weeks - so physical therapy may be required to maintain improvements in functioning. EG. Movement therapy, electrical stimulation.
Showing that the brain can only recover to a certain extent, so for recovery to be successful further action needs to be taken
Ladina’s research strengthens Plasticity and Functional Recovery.
Why?
AO3
Shows that even though plasticity decreases with age, it may have life-long effects.
40hrs of golf training produces change in neural representations of movement in ppts aged 40-60, fMRI’s let the researchers observe the increase in motor cortex activity in the novice golfers compared to a control group
Neural Plasticity may relate to cognitive reserve.
Why is this a limitation?
AO3
Schneider et al 2014 found the more time brain injury patients had spent in education the greater their chances of a disability-free recovery.
Cognitive reserve is a crucial factor in determining how well the brain recovers `
