Plasticity and functional recovery of the brain

Question 1

AO1 plasticity of the brain

Answer 1

-As a result of life experiences, as people gain more experiences nerve pathways that are used often develop stronger connections, and converse
- By building new connections and weakening old ones, the brain can adapt to its enviroments
- There is also a natural decline in cognitive function with age which is attributed to changes in the brain
Research, Boyke et al 2006found evidence of plasticity in 60 year olds learning to juggle lead to increases in grey matter in visual cortex
- Playing video games make different cognitive and motor demands (khun et all 2006) compared a control group with a video game control group playing super mario 30 mins a day for 2 mo
Significant inc in grey matter in various areas such as the hippocampus and motor cortex, concluding that more synaptic connections had been formed in areas involved in spatial navigation and working memory, needed to play the game

Question 2

A01- Functional recovery of the brain

Answer 2

• Neuroplasticity allows people to recover function after trauma, neurons next to damaged areas of the brain can form new circuits that resume some sort of lost function
• 2 ways this happens
  -Neuronal unmasking, Wall (1977) found that there are dormant synpases in the brain which exist anatomically but their function is blocked, under normal conditions these may be ineffective because of the rate of neural input for them is too low to be activated, however an increased neural input may begin when surrounding areas of the brain become damaged, unmasking these dormant synapses. This creats lateral spread of activation giving development to new strcutures
  -Stem cells are unspecialised cells which can readily give rise to become cells with different functions, when these are implanted they canreplace dead cells

Question 3

Strength of plasticity AO3 animal studies

Answer 3

Research support from aminal studies
- Kempermann ( 1988) suggests an enriched enviroment could alter the number of neurons in the brain
- Found evidence of an increased number of new neurons in the brain of rats housed in complex envrionments compared to rats housed in labrotory cages
- Rats in complex environments had more neruons in the hippocampus
-Shows clear evidence of the brains ability to change as a result of experience, plasticity

Question 4

Strength plasticity human studies

Answer 4

• Maguire et al ( 2000) in a study of London taxi drivers discovered that changes in the brain could be detected as a result of their extensive experience of spatial navigation
• Using an MRI scanner, the researchers calculated the amount of grey matter in the brains of taxi drivers and a set of control participants
• Posterior hippocampus of taxi drivers were significantly larger
• ## Shows higher levels of plasticity correlated with the amount of time they spent as a taxi driver

Question 5

A03 functional recovery of the brain, animal studies

Answer 5

• Tajri et all ( 2013) provided evidence in the role of stem cells in recovery from brain injury
  -Rats with traumatic brain injury were randomly assigned to one of two groups
• One recieved implants of stem cells in the damaged area if the brain and control group recieved a solution with no stem cells inside
  -3 months later the rats which had stem cells injected presented clear development
• Supports role played by stem cells in functional recovery of the brain

Question 6

AO3 functional recovery of the brain limitations

Answer 6

• Commonly accepted view that functional recovery reduces with age
• According to this view the only option following traumatic brain injury beyond childhood is to develop compensatory behavioural strategies to work around the deficiet such as social support
  -Elbert et al ( 2001) conclude the capacity for neural reorganisation is much greater in children than in adults