Plasticity And Functional Recovery Of The Brain

Question 1

What does plasticity mean?

Answer 1

The brain has the ability to change through life 🧠

Question 2

What does functional recovery mean?

Answer 2

The brain’s ability to redistribute or transfer functions 🔧

Usually performed by a damaged area to an I damaged area

Question 3

What did Maguire et al 2000 study?

Answer 3

London taxi drivers 🚕

He found more grey matter in their posterior hippocampus

Question 4

What did Draganski et al 2006 study?

Answer 4

Medical students👩🏼‍⚕️

Learning- induced changes changed were seen to have occurred in the posterior hippocampus and parietal cortex

Question 5

What did Mechelli et al 2004 find?

Answer 5

Found a larger parietal cortex in the brain of people who are bilingual 🇬🇧 🇫🇷 🇪🇸

Question 6

What is axon sprouting?

Answer 6

The growth of new nerve endings which connect with other undamaged nerve cells to form new neural pathways 🌱

Question 7

What are the three things that happens in the brain during recovery?

Answer 7

1. Axonal sprouting 🌱
2. Reformation of blood cells 🔴
3. Recruitment of similar areas on the opposite side of the brain to performs specific tasks

Question 8

Explain how ‘animal studies’ is a support for plasticity.

Answer 8

Huber and Wiesel 1963 sewed the eye of a kitten shut🐱and analysed the brains cortical responses

The area of the visual cortex associated with the shut eye continued to process information from the other eye 👁