Douglas - Neuroplasticity: The Secret behind Brain Plasticity

What is brain plasticity exactly? Neuroplasticity, the original scientific term, may sound like a mouthful, but brain plasticity is actually a fairly simple concept. Brain plasticity is basically the term used to describe how the brain, or rather portions of it (such as the synapses and neural pathways), changes throughout the average human life span as a result of being exposed to changes in ones environment, emotions, and behavior. Recently, it has also been surmised that brain plasticity can even help the body cope better with the loss of some body parts of functions due to accidents. So, in a nutshell, the study of brain plasticity is all about identifying the ways and the process through which the brain changes throughout life.

Prior to the discovery of brain plasticity as a concept, it was commonly believed that upon maturity, the human brain was practically set for life. The principles of brain plasticity, however, claim that not only does the organs physiology or functional organization have the ability to react to certain events or changes by altering itself accordingly, but also that even the brains very physical structure and appearance remains malleable throughout adulthood.

In sum, some of most groundbreaking discoveries uncovered over the course of studying brain plasticity include the following:

1.) Brain plasticity has shown that the human brain is able to repair itself after being exposed to a considerable amount of damage.

2.) Even basic activities or states of being (such as sleeping or waking up as well as any sort of action) effects how the brain perceives and processes certain things.

3.) The human brain can form new pathways and connections within itself as well as strengthen existing ones in order to compensate for a loss of function (as in the case of the human brain being better equipped to process sounds and other auditory input when the sense of sight is loss or impaired).

4.) There are certain parts of the brain that can expand or develop the more frequently they are used. For instance, taxi drivers have been known to have larger hippocampi than the average human. Since the hippocampus is the part of the brain associated with ones spatial memory, its only natural that taxi drivers, who often have to sharpen and rely upon their memory of how certain streets or roads look like to do their jobs well, have inadvertently but significantly bulked up the said part of the brain.

5.) There are basically two things that can bring about a significant physical and organizational change in the human brain. This is either due to learning a new skill (whether its by rote memory or through experience) or to an accident or illness that inflicts damage upon the brain.

6.) The changes in ones environment are generally the key factors to the brain plasticity processes, but genetics can also factor in.

7.) While its true that the rapid growth of the brain during the stages of infancy and early childhood lead to the formation of the brains basic physical and organizational foundation and that the average adult has far less synapses per neuron than the average toddler, those things actually dont have as much bearing on how fast or how well an adult might pick up on new learnings and skills as we originally assumed.

8.) There are actually two kinds of brain plasticity. One is called structural plasticity, which pertains to how learnings, experiences, or accidents can change the physical shape and structure of the brain. Structural plasticity concepts include the theory that the repeated use of a skill or function enlarges or develops the portion of the brain responsible for such. The other kind of brain plasticity, on the other hand, is functional plasticity. This sort of plasticity is the driving force behind the brains ability to cope with the loss or damage to a part of the brain by reassigning the said parts functions to another portion entirely.

9.) Brain plasticity can vary throughout ones lifetime. Although this doesnt mean that age affects the malleability of the human brain, it does signify that certain life stages allow for certain kinds of changes more than others. For instance, the stages of early infancy to childhood are more about developmental changes like learning how to walk and talk while the puberty or adolescent stage, by virtue of the usual experiences during the said time period, is more about coming to terms with ones identity as well as developing a more inquisitive nature about things.