Lecture 23 Neuroplasticity

Question 1

How does neuroplasticity work?

Answer 1

How does it actually work?

• “Neurons that fire together, wire together.” (DonalHebb)
• Neurons that fire at the same time repeatedly wire together through chemical changes that occur in both to create a bond making them connect more strongly.
• Neurons that fire apart wire apart; neurons out of sync fail to link.
• Brain maps work by spatially grouping together events that happen together.
• Brain maps will grow as the skill is being learned.
• After many repetitions, the skill is learned.
• It then takes fewer neurons within the area to perform the task. The neurons became faster and more efficient, requiring less to keep the skill functioning.

•

Question 2

Neuroplasticity occurs through: (4 ways)

Answer 2

• Neurogenesis.
• Synaptogenesis.
• Synaptic pruning.
• Long term potentiation.

Question 3

Neurogenesis Only occurs in two areas of the brain:

Answer 3

• In the subgranular zone in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus.
• In the subventricular zone of the striatum.

Question 4

Synaptic Pruning

Answer 4

What is it?

• The process by which extra neurons and synaptic connections are eliminated in order to increase the efficiency of neuronal transmissions.
• Its purpose is to remove unnecessary neuronal structures from the brain; as the human brain develops, the need to understand more complex structures becomes much more pertinent, and simpler associations formed at childhood are thought to be replaced by complex structures.
• Synaptic pruning is achieved through axon degeneration, axon retraction, or axon shedding.
• Linked to ”learning”

Question 5

what is Long Term Potentiation

Answer 5

• A persistent strengthening of synapses based on recent patterns of activity. These are patterns of synaptic activity that produce a long-lasting increase in signal transmission between two neurons.
• The opposite of LTP is long-term depression, which produces a long-lasting decrease in synaptic strength.
• LTP is activated in addictive behaviours
• LTP and depression are examples of neuroplasticity/synaptic plasticity

Question 6

Neuroplasticity and OCD

Answer 6

•People afflicted with OCD engage in a wide variety of problematic behaviors — compulsive hand washing, door opening, repetitive checking of ovens and doors, even repeating the same word, phrase or sentence.

•

• The cause, at a neurological level, is hyperconnectivity between two brain regions, the orbitofrontal cortex and the caudate nucleus, creating a tidal wave of unfounded mortal fear and triggering a habitual response as the only way to attain calm.
• Despite recognition that all these thoughts and behaviors are irrational, the OCD sufferer feels driven to obey them, nonetheless.

Question 7

Neuroplasticity and Depression

Answer 7

• Negative neuroplasticity: depression can cause damage to the brain, encouraging unhealthy and maladaptive pathways and discouraging healthy and adaptive ones.
• Positive neuroplasticity: day-to-day behaviors can have measurable effects on brain structure and function which can offer healing and recovery from mental health disorders like depression.

Question 8

Neuropsychotherapy

Answer 8

• Neuropsychotherapyinvolves using language to activate and strengthen certain neural pathways.
• Neuropsychotherapy aims to change the brain by focusing on the life experiences encountered by the person.
• The brain specializes in the processing of life experiences, which are meaningful with regard to the needs that are embedded within the brain structures of each human being.
• Neuropsychotherapy strives to shift the brain into a state that enables these basic needs to be fully satisfied. The best method for improving the health of the brain, then, is to ensure basic need satisfaction.
• It applies strategies to shift cortical blood flow away from unhelpful neural looping (being constantly worried, depressed etc.).

Question 9

Neuroplasticity for the student

Answer 9

• Managing stress (minimizing stress responses).
• Building willpower (building pathways re. delayed gratification).
• Using intensive pathways in PFC in terms of imagination, creativity, etc…

•

•“The Brain that changes itself” – good book?…

Question 10

Meditation

Answer 10

• Meditation– seems to increase cortical thickness/grey matter density.
• Long-term or short-term practice of meditation results in different levels of activity in brain regions associated with such qualities as attention, anxiety, depression, fear, anger, and the ability of the body to heal itself.

Question 11

Music and Neuroplasticity (don’t need for exam) Prof: Janine louair?

Answer 11

• Musicians have been shown to display several differences in the structure and connectivity of their brains compared to non-musicians, including:
• Enlarged anterior portion of the corpus callosum, especially those who began their training at a young age.
• Enlarged right motor cortex in right-handed musicians than right-handed non-musicians, especially for those who began their musical training at a young age.
• Larger cerebellum in male musicians than in male non-musicians.
• The volume of the grey matter in motor, auditory, and visuospatial cerebral areas is larger in musicians than non-musicians.
• Musicians have more structured right posterior internal capsules than non-musicians, especially for those who began practicing their craft early on.
• Musicians have higher gray and white matter density in the left primary sensory-motor cortex and right cerebellum, as well as higher white matter integrity in the right posterior internal capsule.
• Pianists have increased cortical representation of piano tones.
• Musicians have enhanced responses to temporal novelty in the anterior left hippocampus.
• Musicians have earlier and larger auditory and audiovisual responses to speech and music stimuli.

(Rodrigues, Loureiro, & Caramelli, 2010).

Question 12

Music and Neuroplasticity

Answer 12

• The cognitive enhancement effects of musical training, the result of neuroplastic processes, is thought to be due to a combination of skills required by music study. •
• These include decoding visual information into motor activity, memorizing extended passages of music, learning music structures and rules, learning to make fine auditory spectral and temporal discriminations and learning to perform skilled bimanual finger movements.

Question 13

SMART goals

Answer 13

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Timely