Plasticity & Functional recovery - 16m Seperste Or Combined Flashcards
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Research to support comes from a case study on a patient named EB.
EB suffered from brain damage that resulted in the removal of his left hemisphere and therefore his language centres. Despite this, after some time EB managed to regain some of his language ability, which would not have been possible if the brain was completely lateralised.
This’ suggests that EB’s brain has experienced recruitment of homologous areas and demonstrates the brain can adapt to produce language even when the left hemisphere is not present or functioning, therefore supporting the idea of plasticity and functional
recovery.
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However, this research lacks population validity as the case study only involves one participant, EB who had severe brain damage.
This is an issue as it may have caused unique changes in the brain that may have influenced the plasticity and functional recovery of the brain. This limits how well the research can be generalised to the wider population as different genders or age groups may experience different levels of plasticity in the brain.
Thus, this lowers the external validity of the research into plasticity and functional recovery.
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A strength of the research investigating plasticity and functional recovery is that it has practical applications. This is because the principles of the theory that it is possible for an individual’s brain to recover from damage through axonal sprouting, has led to the development neurorehabilitation. This where the patient practises repeatedly using the affected side of their body e.g. an arm, whilst restraining the unaffected arm (constraint induced movement therapy). Therefore, this is an important applied of psychology as it helps treat the the real world.
This, in turn means that these people will be able to function better in everyday life, and may mean that they are able to go to and be more productive in work, increasing wages and tax payments, therefore helping to improve the economy. This then increases the credibility of research investigating functional recovery of the brain after trauma.
