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Functional Recovery After Trauma - Coggle Diagram
Functional Recovery After Trauma
Overview
The recovery abilities and mental processes that have been compromised as result of brain injury/ disease
1960s → research into stroke victims who were able to regain functioning
Discovered that when brain cells are damaged, the brain rewires itself over time so that some level of function can be restored
Suggesting...
This suggests that although parts of the brain may be damaged / destroyed, other parts take over the functions that were lost
Neurons next to damaged brain areas can form new circuits that resume some of the lost functions
The brain’s plasticity allows for this - ability to change structurally and functionally following trauma
Two ways in which the brain can do this...
Neuronal unmasking
Stem cells
Neuron Unmasking
Wall 1977
Identified ‘dormant synapses’ in the brain
Dormant synapses
Synaptic connection exists anatomically but function is blocked because the rate of neural input to them is too low to be activated.
However, when surrounding brain areas get damaged, the rate of input to these synapses increases → ‘unmask’ the dormant synapses
The unmasking of dorman synapses can open connections to regions of the brain that are not normally activated
Lateral spread of activation
Development of new structures
Stem cells
Unspecialised cells that have the potential to give rise to different cell types that carry out different functions (including taking on the characteristics of nerve cells)
Many different views on how stem cells can treat brain damage:
Transplanted stem cells → secrete a growth factor that somehow rescue the injured cells.
Transplanted cells form a neural network → links uninjure dbrain site where new stem cells are made, with the damaged region.
It can do this through a process termed neuronal unmasking where ‘dormant’ synapses (which have not received enough input to be active) open connections to compensate for a nearby damaged area of the brain. This allows new connections in the brain to be activated, thus recovering any damage occurring in specific regions.