Week 1: Principles of Experience-Dependent Neuroplasticity

Why do we care about neuroplasticity

promote movement recovery and motor learning

what are the 10 principles

use it or lose it, use it and improve it, specificity, repetition matters, intensity matters, salience matters, age, transference, interference, time

use it or lose it

Failure to drive specific brain function can lead to functional degeneration (atrophy, OP, decreased cardiovascular)

use it and improve it

training that drives a specific brain function can leadd to an enhancement of that function

Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT)

restraining the non-affected arm so that they USE thier affected arm as much as possible to improve function

specificity

The nature of the training experience dictates nature of plasticity (to improve walking, we must walk)

repetition matters

Induction of plasticity requires sufficient repetition, need to do thousands (steps)

intensity matters

Induction of plasticity requires sufficient training intensity

what do we mean when we talk about intensity

length of session, frequency of session, how many session, cardiovascular intensity

what 2 things can increase intensity

speed and weight added

time matters

different forms of plasticity occur at different times during recovery, earlier and longer times have better recovery

salience matters

training experience must be sufficiently salient to induce plasticity, doing what is IMPORTANT to them so they pay more attention to them

age matters

training induced plasticity occurs readily in younger brains as they are more plastic and adaptable to change than older adults

transference

plasticity in response to one training experience an enhance acquisition of similar behaviors (working on walking will improve sitting balance)

interference

plasticity in response to one training experience can impede (bad) on similar behaviors. (Compensation can be difficult to modify)