🟢 Biopsychology - Plasticity Functional Recovery Flashcards
(20 cards)
What is brain plasticity
The brains ability to change and adapt because of experience
By the age of 2-3, how many synaptic connections are made
Approximately 15,000
When learning new information, what occurs
Neural pathways and synaptic connections are made for the new information, this means that the brain is changing from new information
When recalling information, what occurs
The neural pathway strengthens making it easier to recall the information
Is there more synaptic connections in infancy or adulthood
In infancy, there is twice the amount of synaptic connections as adulthood. This is because as we age, rarely used connections are deleted and frequently used are strengthened
What is synaptic pruning
Means the less we use the neural pathway, the weaker it gets and eventually deleted
Maguire et al (2000)
Carries out a test on London black cab drivers (London layout is challenging to learn)
To become licensed the black cab driver they must demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the streets and traffic patterns
They must have significant long term memory but also spatial reasoning
Brain scans of 16 London cab drivers shows a particularly large posterior hippocampus (a region of the brain that supports 2 dimensional spatial processing.
The posterior hippocampus was also the largest when they had more than 40 years experience
Supports plasticity
Elbert et al (1985)
A professional violinist requires extraordinary finger dexterity in their left hand. Much less in right hand.
Brain scans of the somatosensory cortex in violinists reveal an unusually large region devoted to fingers on their left hand.
More sensory informational is being sent to there so adapted to meets the demands. Recruited more neurons to meet demands.
Supports plasticity
Danielle (2013)
Investigated Italian boy EB who had most of left hemisphere removed at age 2 1/2 years to remove a tumour.
With intensive therapy EBs right hemisphere was able to take over left hemisphere functions such as language
Due to plasticity
3 studies supporting plasticity
Maguire et al 2000
Elbert et al 1985
Danelli 2013
Example of when plasticity could be negative
Prolonged drug use leading to poorer cognitive functioning and in old age being associated with dementia
What is functional recovery
Transferring of functions from a damaged area of the brain to other undamaged areas
When did research on functional recovery after trauma first come
1960s - researchers started to study stroke victims who were able to regain brain function.
A stroke damages or destroys brain cells but the brain can rework itself over time so some level of function can be regained
What is neural unmasking
Activation of ‘dormant’ synapses to compensate for damaged areas of the brain. The dormant synapses receive higher input due to damage elsewhere. This causes new pathways to open
What is axonal sprouting
New nerve endings grow and connect with undamaged areas. This then creates new blood vessels and pathways around the damaged area. The new neural pathways supporting and reinforcing these new connections with blood vessels.
Causes recruitment of homologous areas (similar) on the opposite hemisphere to do specific tasks
What is Denervation super-sensitivity
axons closer and with a similar function to the damaged ones, are more aroused and more sensitive to input.
Functional recovery- gender
Research shows that women recover quicker than men
Functional recovery - age
- commonly accepted that functional plasticity reduces with age (Huttenlocher 2002)
- the only option following traumatic brain injury in adulthood is to develop compensatory behavioural strategies to work around the deficit
Functional recovery - education
- Schneider et al (2014) found that patients with the equivalent of a college education are 7x more likely than those who didn’t finish high school to be disability few one year after a moderated to severe traumatic brain injury
Stats of Schneider et al (2014)
They carried out a retrospective study based on data from the US Traumatic Brain Injury
Systems Database.
• Of the 769 patients studied, 214 had achieved disability-free recovery (DFR) after one year.
• Of these, 39.2% of the patients with 16 or more years of education had achieved DFR, as had
30.8% of those with 12-15 years of education, and just 9.7% of those with less than 12 years of
education achieved DFR after just one year.
