Plasticity and functional recovery of the brain Flashcards
What does plasticity describe?
o Describes the brain’s tendency to change and adapt as a result of experience and learning
Maguire et al. research into plasticity?
o Studied the brains of London taxi drivers and found significantly more volume of grey matter in the posterior hippocampus that in a matched control group
o This part of the brain is associated with the development of spatial and navigational skills, London cab driers have to be able to recall city streets and know routes
o Suggests that the result of this learning experience is to alter the structure of the taxi drivers’ brains
What is functional recovery?
o A form of plasticity
o Following damage through trauma, the brain’s ability to redistribute or transfer functions usually performed by a damaged area to other, undamaged areas
What happens in the brain during recovery?
o Secondary neural pathways that would not typically be able to carry out certain functions are activated to enable functioning to continue
Structural changes:
o Axonal sprouting - growth of new nerve endings which connect with other undamaged nerve cells to form new neuronal pathways
o Reformation of blood vessels
o Recruitment of homologous areas on the opposite side of the brain to perform specific tasks
Evaluation points for plasticity and functional recovery?
\+ Practical application – Negative plasticity \+ Age and plasticity \+ Support from animal studies \+ Concept of cognitive reserve
What is the practical application for plasticity and functional recovery?
o Contributed to the field of neurorehabilitation
o Spontaneous recovery tends to slow down after a number a weeks so forms of physical therapy required
o Shows that although the brain may have ability to fix itself further intervention is required to be completely successful
Negative plasticity in plasticity and functional recovery?
o Brains ability to rewire itself can sometimes have maladaptive behavioural consequences
o Prolonged drug use, for example, has been shown to result in cognitive functioning as well as an increased risk of dementia in later in life
Effects of age on plasticity?
o Functional plasticity tend to reduce with age
o Research has shown using fMRI a reduced motor cortex activity in novice golfers (40-60) compared to a control group
o Suggesting more efficient neural representations after training, shows that neural plasticity does continue throughout the lifespan
What support is there from animal studies for plasticity and functional recovery?
o Early evidence of neuroplasticity and functional recovery was derived from animal studies
o One researcher was sewing the eye of a kitten shut and analysis the brain’s cortical responses
o It found that the area of the visual cortex association with the shut eye wan’t idle but continued to process information from the open eye
What is the concept of cognitive reserve in plasticity and functional recovery?
o Evidence suggests that a person’s education attainment may influence how all the brain functionally adapts after injury
o Been discovered that the more time brain injury parties had spent in education (this was taken as their cognitive reserve) the greater their chances of a disability-free recovery
