plasticity and functional recovery of the brain after trauma

Question 1

At what period is brain growth the most rapid and the most connections made?

Answer 1

in infancy

Question 2

when in the peak of brain connections?

Answer 2

age 2-3 years old

Question 3

what happens to connections as we age?

Answer 3

there is synaptic pruning in which rarely used connections are deleted and frequently used ones are strengthened

Question 4

what is plasticity?

Answer 4

at and time neural connections can change and new ones can be formed due to learning and experience

Question 5

Who conducted the London taxi driver (LTD) study?

Answer 5

Maguire et al

Question 6

how many ppts were there in the LTD study?

Answer 6

16 taxi drivers, and 50 in the control group

Question 7

what was the shared characteristic between the control and the drivers?

Answer 7

all right-handed, male no brain problems

Question 8

what investigative technique did the LTD study use?

Answer 8

MRI and self-report

Question 9

What did the LTD comparison find?

Answer 9

the taxi drivers had a significantly larger posterior hippocampus (associated with navigation and spatial awareness) and a smaller anterior hippocampus

Question 10

What did the LTD correlation find?

Answer 10

there was a strong positive correlation between years as a taxi drive and volume of their posterior hippocampus

Question 11

What are the criticisms of the LTD study?

Answer 11

beta bias, small ppt numbers, cannot establish cause and effect (cannot know if hippocampus size was smaller before the knowledge)

Question 12

What are the strengths of the LTD study?

Answer 12

reliable, good control, standard procedure

Question 13

what was Draganski et al’s study and what were their findings?

Answer 13

they scanned the posterior hippocampus and parietal cortex of med student 3 months before and after final exams and found learning-induced changes as a result of exams

Question 14

what was Michelli et al’s study and what were their findings?

Answer 14

they found a larger parietal cortex in bilingual people compared to monolingual people

Question 15

What is functional recovery?

Answer 15

after a physical injury to the brain unaffected areas of the brain are often able to adapt and compensate for the damaged area

Question 16

what is spontaneous recovery?

Answer 16

when functional recovery happens quickly after trauma then slows down over months and years where physical therapy such as electrical stimulation and movement therapy may be needed

Question 17

how does the brain reorganise itself?

Answer 17

by forming new neural connections close to the area of damage, secondary less frequently used connections are strengthened, axonal sprouting( the growth of new neurone endings), reformation of blood vessels, recruitment of homologous areas on the opposite side of the brain

Question 18

what are the practical applications of plasticity?

Answer 18

contribution to the field of neurorehabilitation

Question 19

describe Hubel and Wiesel’s animal study

Answer 19

they sowed a kittens eye shut and analysed the brains cortical responses, they found areas of the visual cortex associated with the shut-eye continue to process information from the open eye.

Question 20

What is the cognitive reserve?

Answer 20

evidence suggests a person’s educational attainment may influence how their brain recovers after injury

Question 21

what are the results of Schnider’s study into cognitive reserves?

Answer 21

he found of those who had disability-free recovery 40% had 16 or more years in education whereas 10% who recovered had less than 12 years education

Question 22

how does plasticity work negatively with drug use?

Answer 22

prolonged exposure to drugs causes poorer cognitive functions and a higher risk of dementia

Question 23

how does plasticity work negatively for amputees?

Answer 23

phantom limb syndrome- 60-80% of amputees continue to experience sensations in missing limbs due to the reorganisation of the somatosensory area

Question 24

describe Bezzola et al’s study

Answer 24

after 40 hours of golf training in ppts aged 40-60 years old, FMRIs showed less brain activity in the motor area compared to the control group suggesting more efficient neural connections