psychobiology - brain communication and plasticity

long term potentiation

synaptic connections become stronger with frequent activation

long term depression

synaptic connections become weaker with infrequent activation

Maguire et al (2000)

London taxi drivers had greater volume of the hippocampi

• this was more pronounced the longer they had spent in the job and shrunk when retired

• hippocampus is associated with spatial and navigational skills

Gaser & Schlaug et al (2003)

Expert pianists had an increased grey matter density in the somatomotor and auditory cortices as well as an increased corpus callosum volume

• musicianship requires efficient integration of information from separate brain networks

  • corpus callosum supports fast transmission of information between hemispheres

Pascual-Leone et al (1993)

In Braille readers, cortical representations of the reading finger was significantly enlarged at the expensive of representations of the other fingers

• these changes were observed within a day of 4-6 hours of practicing braille

maladaptive plasticity

plastic changes in the brain that can have a negative behavioural or clinical outcome

cortical reorganisation

functional changes to the brain causing reorganisation of cortical maps (homunculi) as a consequence of synaptic plasticity (sprouting and pruning)

historical perspective of plasticity

it was believed that the brain was selectively immutable after the critical period of development in childhood

CBT and plasticity

CBT can create plastic changes in the brain, especially in depressed patients who show disrupted emotional regulation in the brain

chronic pain

prolonged activation of pain pathways lead to overly sensitive and hyperactive pain pathways, which is maintained after the original source of pain has gone (central sensitisation)

• maladaptive plasticity