Biopsychology: Plasticity And Functional Recovery Of The Brain After Trauma Flashcards
What is brain plasticity?
Refers to the brain’s ability to change and adapt because of experience.
What is meant by experience?
Includes everything outside the body (e.g. driving a car), and the functions and processes of the brain can change as a result of these experiences.
What happens to rarely used connections?
Neural Pruning
-As we age rarely used connections are deleted and frequently used connections are strengthened.
What studies is used for brain plasticity?
- Maguire (2000)
- Elbert (1985)
What was the procedure of Maguire (2000)?
Asked for volunteer London black taxi drivers (as they memorise the streets).
-Wanted to scan their brains to see a difference compared to a control group.
What did Maguire (2000) find?
Found that increased grey matter was found in the taxi drivers compared to control group.
-Increased volume found in posterior hippocampus.
How does Maguire (2000) support brain plasticity?
Supports brain plasticity and suggest that experience (driving taxi) can change the structure of the brain (enlarged hippocampus).
What is the method + findings of Elbert?
Looked at professional violinist (relies on dexterity)
-Found larger somatosensory cortex. Shows how the brain adapts through experience.
What are negatives of brain plasticity?
If partake in riskful actions (drinking, drugs) then your brain can be implicated negatively.
-Negative impact on cognitive functions.
What is functional recovery?
The transfer of functions from a damaged area of the brain after trauma to other undamaged areas.
-Can be done through neuronal unmasking.
What is neuronal unmasking?
Where ‘dormant’ synapses open connections to compensate for a nearby damaged area of the brain.
Other than neuronal unmasking, how else can neuronal loss be compensated?
Axon sprouting (regeneration)
What is axon sprouting?
New nerve endings grow and connect with undamaged areas to form new neural pathways.
