Biopsychology - Plasticity and functional recovery

plasticity and functional recovery - spec pt 5

Neuroplasticity

refers to brains ability to adapt to change from injury, illness or learning

Structural Plasticity

changes within the brain structure eg enlarged hippocampi of taxi drivers

what is the scientific evidence of structural plasticity

increased grey matter build up is seen in MRI scans caused by increased synaptic connectedness

Functional Recovery

ability to replace lost or damaged functions by using existing brain regions

what 5 factors affect brain plasticity

nutrition

upbringing

age

stress

genetics

Give the research study that showed brain plasticity

Danelli et al (2013)

What did Danelli et al (2013) do

Studied boy who had LH removed because of tumor at age 2 and lost all language fuction.

Found that 2 years later boy had recovered language abilities and fMRI showed RH was taking on language functions

Give on strength of research support for functional recovery

many bodies of research supporting eachother - shows its been replicated many times so likely to be true

What is on case study that shows a limitation of functional recovery

Case of H.M who had hippocampus removed at 27 and his memory was permanently affected and no functional recovery occured so it cannot be a universal phenomena

What occurs biologically during functional recovery

recruitment of homologous areas to develop and change in order to take on the functions of the damaged areas

what is denervation super-sensitivity

axons that complete a similar job become aroused to compensate for the lost cells

What is axonal Sprouting

process where new nerve fibres called sprouts grow from intact axons to reinervate, denervated cells to help form neural pathways