Plasticity and functional recovery

What is neuroplasticity?

Brain's ability to physically and functionally change in response to experience, learning or damage

What is synaptic pruning?

Unused neural connections are removed. Making communication between neurons more efficient

What is developmental plasticity?

First 2-3 years of life, brain experiences rapid growth in synaptic connections between neurons but this declines in adolescence as many synapse are pruned making the brain less flexible

What is synaptic reweighting?

Existing synapse connections can become stronger or weaker depending on how frequently they are used

What is axonal sprouting?

A brain pathway has been severed, new nerve endings can sprout from undamaged axons near area of damage and form new synaptic connections with nearby neurons

What is neural reorganisation?

Moving lost functions to a different location in the brain. The equivalent area on the undamaged hemisphere may take over for an area that has been damaged.

Is functional recovery affected by age?

The brain is most plashc in early childhood, for example, Borgstein & Grootendoorst reported on a 7 yr old who had her left hemispheres removed at 3 yrs old. By the age of 7 she was fluent in 2 languages and had mostly recovered movement control on the right side of her body

Research support - Maguire

London taxi driver study - quasi experiment

Taxi drivers had greater grey matter volume in the posterior hippocampus

AO3 - Real life application

Contribute to the field of neurorehabilitation. Following injury to the brain, spontaneous recovery tends to slowdown so physical therapy may be required to maintain improvement. This research has led to positive changes in real life for many people

AO3 - animal based research

Many of the studies are based on animals, meaning not all findings are generalisable. For example, a study used a kitten, sewed its eye shut to see how its brain then processed information.

AO3 - limits to how much recovery can occur

Liepert found that constraint -induced movement therapy improved the motor performance of stroke patients. Suggesting the brain cannot only naturally recover, sometimes rehabilitation may be necessary.