Plasticity and Functional Recovery AO1 & AO3

Question 1

Define Plasticity

Answer 1

The brains ability to change and adapt due to new learning experiences

Question 2

What are the 3 stages of brain changes?

Answer 2

1) Infancy - rapid growth of synaptic connections
2) 2-3 years old - No. synaptic connections peak at approx 15,000
3) Adulthood - No. synaptic connections is approx 7,500 and synaptic pruning begins to occur

Question 3

What does synaptic pruning enable?

Answer 3

life long plactisity

Question 4

Who developed the stages of brain changes?

Answer 4

Gopnik et al (1999)

Question 5

Who studied the brains of London taxi drivers?

Answer 5

Maguire et al

Question 6

What did Maguire et al find?

Answer 6

There was significantly more volume of grey matter in the posterior hippocampus in the taxi drivers.

So, learning experiences alter the structure of the brain and the longer the drivers had their jobs the more pronounced the structural differences were.

Question 7

What is the Posterior hippocampus thought to be involved in?

Answer 7

The development of spatial and navigation skills

Question 8

Who conducted a study into medical students?

Answer 8

Draganski et al (2006)

Question 9

What did Draganski find?

Answer 9

Medical Student’s brains altered in the posterior hippocampus and the parietal cortex - Learning induced changes

Question 10

Define Functional Recovery

Answer 10

Recovery of the brain after brain trauma (often due to physical injury)
Areas of the brain are often able to adapt and compensate for the damaged areas

Question 11

What is Functional Recovery also known as?

Answer 11

Neural Plasticity - healthy brain areas might take over the functions of the damaged areas

Question 12

What do neuroscientists suggest abt neural plasticity?

Answer 12

That recovery is up to individual differences

Question 13

What did Doidge (2007) say about Brain Recovery?

Answer 13

Secondary neural pathways that would not typically be used to carry out certain functions are activated

Question 14

What is Axonal Sprouting?

Answer 14

The growth of new nerve endings which connect w/ other undamaged nerve cells to form new neural pathways

Question 15

When does Denervation Super Sensitivity occur?

Answer 15

When axons that do similar jobs become aroused to a higher level to compensate for ones that are lost

Question 16

What is Recruitment of Homologous?

Answer 16

When specific tasks can still be preformed

Question 17

Research into Plasticity and Functional Recovery has contributed to the development of neurorehabilitation.
Why is this still a weakness in terms of Practical Application?

AO3

Answer 17

Spontaneous recovery tends to slow down after a few weeks - so physical therapy may be required to maintain improvements in functioning. EG. Movement therapy, electrical stimulation.
Showing that the brain can only recover to a certain extent, so for recovery to be successful further action needs to be taken

Question 18

Ladina’s research strengthens Plasticity and Functional Recovery.
Why?

AO3

Answer 18

Shows that even though plasticity decreases with age, it may have life-long effects.

40hrs of golf training produces change in neural representations of movement in ppts aged 40-60, fMRI’s let the researchers observe the increase in motor cortex activity in the novice golfers compared to a control group

Question 19

Neural Plasticity may relate to cognitive reserve.
Why is this a limitation?

AO3

Answer 19

Schneider et al 2014 found the more time brain injury patients had spent in education the greater their chances of a disability-free recovery.

Cognitive reserve is a crucial factor in determining how well the brain recovers `