Plasticity and Functional Recovery of the Brain After Trauma

Question 1

What is plasticity

Answer 1

the brains tendency to adapt and change functional and physically due to experience and learning

Question 2

What was Gopnik et al. (1999)

Answer 2

synaptic connections in infant rapidly increase - peaks at around 15,000 by age 2 or 3 - double the amount of connections is an adult brain

Question 3

What happens to frequently used connections

Answer 3

they are strengthened as we get older

Question 4

What happens to rarely used connections

Answer 4

they get deleted through the process of synaptic pruning

Question 5

What was thought about connection changes

Answer 5

that they did not happen in adults, only children - recent studies suggest adult brains don’t remain in fixed state, connections can change and newly form

Question 6

What was Maguire et al. (2000)

Answer 6

studied London taxi drivers brains - found significantly more grey matter volume in posterior hippocampus - this area links to development of navigational and spatial skills
London taxi drivers take ‘the knowledge’ to test their ability to become a driver
There is a positive correlation between how long taxi drivers are in the job and how pronounced structural difference was

Question 7

What was Draganski et al. (2006)

Answer 7

saw similar findings to Maguire when looking at brain of medical student 3 months before and 3 months after finals - changes seen in posterior hippocampus and parietal cortex after exam

Question 8

What was Mechelli et al. (2004)

Answer 8

larger parietal cortex found in brains of bilingual people compared to those who could only speak one language

Question 9

What if functional recovery of the brain after trauma

Answer 9

a form of plasticity which allows the brain to transfer or redistribute functions usually performed by a damaged area to an undamaged area

Question 10

What is spontaneous recovery

Answer 10

fast recovery straight after trauma, which then slows down for several weeks or months

Question 11

Rehabilitative therapy

Answer 11

may be needed for further recovery

Question 12

What are secondary neural pathways

Answer 12

not typically used

activated or unmasked to enable functioning to continue as it was before - Doidge (2007)

Question 13

What are the 3 structural changes that take place in the brain

Answer 13

reformation of blood cells, axonal sprouting and recruitment of homologous areas

Question 14

Axonal sprouting

Answer 14

growth of new nerve endings to connect to other undamaged nerve cells

Question 15

Recruitment of homologous areas

Answer 15

areas on opposite hemisphere recruited to do specific tasks

Question 16

Practical application - EVAL

Answer 16

the understanding of processes within plasticity has contributed to the field of neurorehabilitation
spontaneous recovery seems to slow down after a few weeks, so physical therapy is required e.g. movement therapy or electrical stimulation of brain
used to counter deficits in cognitive and motor functioning after a stroke or brain trauma

Question 17

Negative Plasticity - EVAL

Answer 17

there can be maladaptive behavioural consequences when the brain tries to rewire itself
prolonged drug use may result in poorer cognitive function and greater risk of dementia
60-80% of amputees are said to develop phantom limb disease - continued sensation in missing limb
these sensations are thought to be due to cortical reorganisation in somatosensory cortex

Question 18

Age and Plasticity - EVAL

Answer 18

the functionality of plasticity tends to diminish with age
brain has greater inclination for reorganisation in childhood due to continuous learning
Bezzola et al. (2012) - demonstrated effect of 40hrs of golf training on neural representation of movement in participants between 40-60yrs old
FMRI used by researchers to observe reduced motor cortex activity in novices compared to those with no training - shows more efficient neural representation came after training - neural plasticity continues throughout life

Question 19

Taxi Driver - EVAL

Answer 19

Maguire et al. (2000) didn’t study brains before the study - it could be that bigger posterior hippocampus leads people to become taxi drivers or jobs that require similar skills, not that it develops from the learning and new experiences
However, it is shown that more time on the job is positively correlated with bigger posterior hippocampus