Biopsych: Plasticity and functional recovery

Question 1

Synaptic pruning

Answer 1

Rarely used synaptic connections are deleted, and frequency used synaptic connections are strengthened

Question 2

Posterior hippocampus

Answer 2

The part of the brain associated with spatial and navigational skills

Question 3

Rehabilitative therapy/neurorehabilitation

Answer 3

After a few weeks of spontaneous recovery, physical therapy may be required to maintain improvements

Question 4

Axonal sprouting

Answer 4

The growth of new nerve endings which connect with undamaged nerve cells to form new neuronal pathways

Question 5

Reformation of blood vessels

Answer 5

The blood vessels are reformed to ensure the brain functions in affected areas

Question 6

Homologous areas of the brain

Answer 6

Similar areas on opposite sides of the brain are recruited to perform specific tasks

Question 7

Plasticity

Answer 7

Describes the brain’s tendency to change and adapt (functionally and physically) as a result of experience and learning

Question 8

Functional recovery

Answer 8

A form of plasticity
Following damage through trauma, the brain’s ability to redistribute or transfer functions performed by damaged areas to undamaged areas

Question 9

Maguire (2000)

Answer 9

The taxi driver study - used fMRI to image the brains of London taxi drivers and found significantly more grey matter in the posterior hippocampus

Question 10

Draganski (2006)

Answer 10

The medical students study - imaged the brains of medical students before and after their final exams and found that the posterior hippocampus and parietal cortex had changed due to learning

Question 11

Mechelli (2004)

Answer 11

The bilingual people study - found that bilingual people had a larger parietal cortex than monolingual people

Question 12

Neurorehabilitation

Answer 12

Neurorehabilitation has improved as a result of plasticity research

Question 13

Ramachandran and Hirstein (1998)

Answer 13

The phantom limb syndrome study - found that 60-80% of amputees experience PLS, thought to be due to cortical reorganisation in the somatosensory cortex

Question 14

Bezzola (2012)

Answer 14

The golf training study - found that 40 hours of golf training produced neural changes in participants aged 40-60

Question 15

Hubel and Weisel (1963)

Answer 15

The kitten study - sewed one eye of a kitten shut and found that the area of the visual cortex associated with the shut eye continued the process information from the left eye

Question 16

Schneider (2014)

Answer 16

The brain injury patient study - found that patients who spent longer in education had a higher chance of a disability-free recovery