Exam 1: Brain Plasticity & Cortical Gyrification

describe the interplay of genetic and experience on the brain’s development

genetics provide a blueprint for brain development, but experience is necessary for tuning

describe the critical period and synaptic pruning

• The critical period - the first couple of years in a person’s life; sensory deprivation in this period can result in sensory deficits; the time during development when neural connections are forming, and the system is most vulnerable to the damaging effects of abnormal sensory input

• Synaptic pruning - after the critical period, connections are less numerous because the unused one are pruned and eliminated

  • “Use it or lose it” - unused connections get pruned and eliminated

What is amblyopia? What are the causes?

an example of brain plasticity; a central (NOT PERIPHERAL) disorder of vision

• Causes: nothing is wrong with eye as an organ itself, however, the eye may not transmit the visual input correctly due to various causes, such as strabismus (eye misalignment) or blockage

What are the symptoms of amblyopia? What are the treatments?

• Symptoms: because the brain constructs an image of the visual world based on the input from both eyes, if one eye is sending a blurry or wrong image, the brain will suppress that incorrect image; after a while, this will result in permanent vision loss in one eye (ie amblyopia)

• Treatments: glasses, cataract removal, eye muscle surgery, eye patches to force the “weaker” eye to be used, etc

Name and describe the basic terms of cortical gyrification:

• gyrus/gyri - the “crown” of the fold

• sulcus/sulci - the “valley” between folds