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placticity and functional recovery of the brain after trauma - Coggle…
placticity and functional recovery of the brain after trauma
placticty
refers to the brains ability to change and adapt as a result of experience or new learning
during infancy the number of neural connections increases rapidly praking at 15,000 at the age of two or three.
rarely used connections are deleted and frequently used connections are strengthened
known as synaptic pruning
functional recovery after trauma
following physical injury, or other forms of trauma such as a stroke, unaffected areas of the brain are often able to adapt and compensate for damaged areas
the brain is able to rewire itself through the growth of new neurons and connections to compensate for damaged areas
neural regeneration
axonal sprouting
devervation supersensitivity
reformation of blood vessles
evaluation
evidence for placticity +
scanned the brains of 16 male licensed london taxi drivers. there were compared with scans of non taxi drivers. the posterior hippocampi of taxi drivers were significantly larger relative to those of control subjects and that the hippocampi volume positively correlated with the amount of time spent as a taxi driver
individual differences and placticity -
research has suggested that functional placticity tends to reduce with age, this means that whilst the brain is still maturing recovery from trauma is more likely. reseach has also found that women tend to recover more effectively than men as their function is not lateralised. this suggests there are different factors involved in determining placticity of the brain
practical applications +
understanding the processes involved in placticity has contributed to the field of neurorehabilitation. often recovery slows after a period of time and people will require additional interventions for a full recovery. this shows that research in this area has important implications in the real world