plasticity and functional recovery

Question 1

plasticity

Answer 1

the brain’s tendency to change and adapt as a result of experience and new learning

Question 2

functional recovery

Answer 2

a form of plasticity
the brain’s ability to redistribute or transfer functions usually performed by a damaged area to other undamaged areas

Question 3

research into plasticity

Answer 3

• Eleanor Maquire studied the brains of London taxi drivers and found significantly more grey matter in the posterior hippocampus than other people
• this part of the brain is associated with the development of spatial and navigational skills
• positive correlation between the time they’d been in the job and the amount of grey matter they had

Question 4

functional recovery of the brain after trauma

Answer 4

healthy brain areas take over the functions of those that are damaged
this process can happen quickly and slow down after several weeks or months until the damaged area is healed

Question 5

what happens in the brain during recovery?

Answer 5

axonal sprouting - the growth of new nerve endings which connect with other undamaged nerve cells to create new neuronal networks

Question 6

evaluation: practical application

Answer 6

• contributed to the field of neurorehabilitation
• following injury, spontaneous recovery tends to slow down so forms of physical recovery may be used to improve functioning
• techniques may include electrical stimulation to counter deficits in cognitive functioning
• shows that although the brain has the ability to fix itself to a point, this process required further intervention

Question 7

evaluation: negative plasticity

Answer 7

• the brain’s ability to rewire itself can sometimes have maladaptive consequences
• prolonged drug use has been shown to result in poorer cognitive functioning as well as an increased risk of dementia in later life
• 60-80% of amputees experience phantom limb syndrome due to cortical reorganisation in the somatosensory area

Question 8

evaluation: plasticity with age

Answer 8

• functional recovery tends to reduce with age
• Bezzola demonstrated how 40 hours of golf training produced neural representation of movement in 40-60 year olds
• usinf fMRI, researchers observed reduced motor cortex activity in the novice golfers compared to a control group
• shows that neural plasticity does continue throughout the lifespan