Ethan Clarke
Plasticity, also known as neuroplasticity or brain plasticity, is the brain's ability to adapt and reorganise itself in response to intrinsic or extrinsic stimuli. This process involves functional and structural changes, allowing the brain to create new neural connections, adapt to injuries, and recover lost functions. The concept of plasticity was first introduced in the field of psychology by William James in 1890, and has since been extensively studied, contributing significantly to our understanding of brain development, learning, memory, and recovery from brain injuries. While the brain exhibits plasticity throughout our lives, younger brains tend to demonstrate greater plasticity, making it easier to acquire new skills and recover from injuries.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Definition | Neuroplasticity, also known as neural plasticity or brain plasticity, is the ability of the brain to modify its connections or re-wire itself. |
| History | The term plasticity was first used in 1890 by William James in 'The Principles of Psychology' to describe "a structure weak enough to yield to an influence, but strong enough not to yield all at once". The term neural plasticity was likely first used by Polish neuroscientist Jerzy Konorski. |
| Brain Development | The basic structure of the brain is established before birth by genes. Its continued development relies on developmental plasticity, which changes neurons and synaptic connections. |
| Neurons | The human brain is composed of approximately 100 billion neurons. |
| Neurogenesis | Early researchers believed that neurogenesis, or the creation of new neurons, stopped shortly after birth. Today, it is understood that the brain can create new neurons, although this has not been conclusively demonstrated in humans. |
| Synapses | At birth, every neuron in the cerebral cortex has an estimated 2,500 synapses. By the age of three, this number has grown to 15,000 synapses per neuron. |
| Malleability | Plasticity refers to the brain's malleability or ability to change. |
| Adaptation | The brain can adapt and change in response to new information, experiences, learning, memory formation, or damage. |
| Stimuli | Neuroplasticity is the ability of the nervous system to change its activity in response to intrinsic or extrinsic stimuli. |
| Recovery | Neuroplasticity can aid in brain recovery after injury, such as a stroke or traumatic brain injury. |
| Genes | Genetics play a role in shaping the brain's plasticity. Genes that play central roles in synaptic plasticity show reduced expression with age. |
| Sleep | Sleep plays a role in dendritic growth in the brain, which may encourage greater brain plasticity. |
| Exercise | Consistent aerobic exercise can improve executive function and increase grey matter volume in multiple brain regions. |
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What You'll Learn
- Brain plasticity is the ability of the brain to modify its connections or rewire itself
- Plasticity is influenced by genetics and the environment
- Neurons that fire together, wire together
- Synaptic plasticity controls how effectively two neurons communicate
- Brain plasticity helps in brain recovery after damage
Brain plasticity is the ability of the brain to modify its connections or rewire itself
The brain's plasticity is its ability to adapt and change. The term plasticity was first used in the context of behaviour by William James in 1890, who described it as "a structure weak enough to yield to an influence, but strong enough not to yield all at once". In the context of the brain, plasticity refers to the brain's malleability or ability to change.
Neuroplasticity, or brain plasticity, is the ability of the brain to modify its connections or rewire itself. It involves adaptive structural and functional changes to the brain. The brain can adapt its structure, functions, or connections in response to intrinsic or extrinsic stimuli. This can include functional changes due to brain damage or structural changes due to learning. For example, in the case of brain damage, the brain can move functions from a damaged area to other undamaged areas. This is known as functional plasticity. Structural plasticity, on the other hand, is the brain's ability to change its physical structure as a result of learning.
The brain's plasticity is not limited to childhood development, but continues throughout our lives. For instance, consistent aerobic exercise over several months can lead to clinically significant improvements in executive function and increased grey matter volume in multiple brain regions. Similarly, sleep has been shown to play an important role in dendritic growth in the brain, which can strengthen connections and improve brain plasticity.
The plasticity of the brain is also influenced by genetics. For example, transcriptional profiling of the frontal cortex has shown that genes with central roles in synaptic plasticity are affected by age, with reduced expression over time. Additionally, certain types of changes are more predominant at specific ages. For instance, younger brains tend to be more sensitive and responsive to experiences than older brains.
The concept of neuroplasticity has been supported by various scientific experiments and studies. For example, in the 18th century, Italian anatomist Michele Vincenzo Malacarne conducted experiments where he paired animals, extensively trained one of the pairs, and then dissected them. He discovered that the cerebellums of the trained animals were substantially larger than those of the untrained animals. In the 1960s, Marian Diamond of the University of California, Berkeley, produced the first scientific evidence of anatomical brain plasticity.
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Plasticity is influenced by genetics and the environment
Neuroplasticity, or brain plasticity, is the brain's ability to adapt and change in response to experience. It involves the reorganisation of neural pathways, the creation of new neural connections, and the formation of new neurons. The brain's plasticity is influenced by both genetics and the environment.
Genetics plays a role in shaping the brain's plasticity. For instance, transcriptional profiling of the frontal cortex has revealed a set of genes with reduced expression over time, particularly after the age of 40 and more significantly after 70. Genes that are crucial for synaptic plasticity show a decline in expression as a person ages. Additionally, sleep, which is influenced by genetics, has been linked to dendritic growth in the brain. Strengthening these dendritic connections through adequate sleep can enhance brain plasticity.
Environmental factors also influence brain plasticity. For example, consistent aerobic exercise has been shown to improve executive function and increase grey matter volume in multiple brain regions, particularly those associated with cognitive control. Higher levels of physical fitness are correlated with improved executive function, faster processing speed, and greater volume in certain brain regions. Environmental influences on phenotypes can become genetically encoded through genetic accommodation and genetic assimilation. This process involves the interaction between the environment and genetics, resulting in selectable phenotypic variation.
The concept of phenotypic plasticity refers to the changes in an organism's behaviour, morphology, and physiology in response to its unique environment. It is particularly crucial for immobile organisms such as plants, enabling them to adapt to environmental variations. For instance, plants exhibit phenotypic plasticity in the timing of their transition from vegetative to reproductive growth, allocation of resources, seed size, and leaf shape, size, and thickness.
While plasticity occurs throughout the lifetime, certain types of changes are more prevalent at specific ages. The brain undergoes significant changes during early development, as it grows and organises itself. Younger brains tend to be more sensitive and responsive to experiences compared to older brains. However, adult brains retain their capacity for adaptation and neurogenesis, demonstrating that plasticity continues throughout life.
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Neurons that fire together, wire together
The brain is composed of approximately 100 billion neurons. Early researchers believed that neurogenesis, or the creation of new neurons, stopped shortly after birth. However, today we understand that the brain's neuroplasticity allows it to reorganise pathways, create new connections, and, in some cases, even create new neurons. Neuroplasticity, also known as neural plasticity or brain plasticity, is the process by which the brain adapts and changes in response to intrinsic or extrinsic stimuli. It involves functional and structural changes, such as the reorganisation of its structure, functions, or connections.
The concept of "neurons that fire together, wire together" is known as Hebbian theory or Hebb's rule, introduced by Donald Hebb in his 1949 book, "The Organisation of Behaviour". Hebbian theory is a neuropsychological theory that claims that an increase in synaptic efficacy arises from a presynaptic cell's repeated and persistent stimulation of a postsynaptic cell. It attempts to explain synaptic plasticity, or the adaptation of neurons during the learning process. According to the theory, activating a few select neurons is enough to trigger a whole neuronal ensemble, providing a possible explanation for memory recall.
Hebb emphasised that for two neurons to fire and wire together, there needs to be a causal relationship between them. In other words, one neuron needs to consistently take part in firing the other, rather than both neurons firing simultaneously. This aspect of causation in Hebb's work is reflected in what is now known about spike-timing-dependent plasticity, which requires temporal precedence. Hebbian theory also provides a biological basis for errorless learning methods in education and memory rehabilitation.
While the concept of "neurons that fire together, wire together" is a compelling idea, it presents an oxymoron. On the one hand, the synaptic connections within a Hebbian ensemble need to be strong to facilitate rapid memory recall. On the other hand, if the connections are too strong, it can lead to explosive activity that hinders subsequent stimulus processing. Recent research by Yue Kris Wu and Friedemann Zenke has characterised a plausible mechanism that combines several circuit elements observed in neurobiology to address this issue.
In conclusion, the principle of "neurons that fire together, wire together" highlights the importance of causality and consistency in the formation of neuronal connections. It has provided valuable insights into learning, memory, and brain function, and continues to be a subject of ongoing research and discovery.
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Synaptic plasticity controls how effectively two neurons communicate
The human brain is composed of approximately 100 billion neurons. Neuroplasticity, or brain plasticity, is the brain's ability to change, reorganise, or grow neural networks. This can involve functional changes due to brain damage or structural changes due to learning.
Synaptic plasticity is a change that occurs at synapses, the junctions between neurons that allow them to communicate. The idea that synapses could change depending on their activity levels was first proposed in 1949 by Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb. Synaptic plasticity controls how effectively two neurons communicate with each other. The strength of communication between two synapses can be likened to the volume of a conversation. When neurons communicate, they do so at different volumes – some neurons communicate quietly while others are louder. The volume setting of the synapse, or the synaptic strength, is not static, but rather can change in both the short term and long term.
The strength of a synapse can be reinforced by stimulation or weakened by its lack. If a positive feedback loop develops, some cells will never fire, and some will fire too much. However, two regulatory forms of plasticity, called scaling and metaplasticity, also exist to provide negative feedback. Synaptic scaling is a primary mechanism that allows a neuron to stabilise firing rates. It serves to maintain the strengths of synapses relative to each other, lowering amplitudes of small excitatory postsynaptic potentials in response to continual excitation and raising them after prolonged blockage or inhibition. This effect occurs gradually over hours or days, by changing the numbers of NMDA receptors at the synapse. Metaplasticity varies the threshold level at which plasticity occurs, allowing integrated responses to synaptic activity spaced over time and preventing saturated states of LTP and LTD.
Long-term depression (LTD) and long-term potentiation (LTP) are two forms of long-term plasticity, lasting minutes or more, that occur at excitatory synapses. NMDA-dependent LTD and LTP have been extensively researched and are found to require the binding of glutamate, and glycine or D-serine for activation of NMDA receptors. The turning point for the synaptic modification of a synapse has been found to be modifiable itself, depending on the history of the synapse.
Synaptic plasticity plays a crucial role in memory formation and learning.
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Brain plasticity helps in brain recovery after damage
The brain's ability to adapt and change is referred to as neuroplasticity, neural plasticity, or brain plasticity. It is a process that involves adaptive structural and functional changes to the brain. Neuroplasticity allows the brain to reorganize pathways, create new connections, and, in some cases, even create new neurons.
Brain plasticity is essential for brain recovery after damage. When a part of the brain is damaged, the brain can adapt by reorganizing its structure, functions, or connections. This is known as functional plasticity, which enables the brain to move functions from a damaged area to undamaged areas. For example, in studies of people recovering from strokes, regions of the brain that remained healthy were sometimes able to take over the functions of the damaged areas.
The brain's ability to form new connections and reorganize itself is crucial for recovery from brain injuries, which often result in severe impairments. Neuroplasticity-driven therapies, such as virtual reality, brain-computer interfaces, and constraint-induced movement therapy, leverage the brain's plasticity to aid in healing. For instance, functional electrical stimulation (FES) stimulates weak muscles with electrical currents, encouraging neuroplastic modifications in the nervous system and improving motor control.
Additionally, consistent aerobic exercise has been shown to induce clinically significant improvements in executive function and increased gray matter volume in multiple brain regions. Exercise may also help prevent neuron loss in key areas of the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in memory and other functions. Sleep is also important for brain plasticity, as it plays a role in dendritic growth and strengthening connections between neurons.
While brain plasticity occurs throughout the lifetime, younger brains tend to be more sensitive and responsive to experiences than older brains. The developing brain may be more capable of significant reorganization and recovery after injury, and it is less likely to develop progressive cognitive decline. However, the opposing view suggests that the developing brain is more vulnerable to damage due to its critical growth and circuitry formation.
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Frequently asked questions
Brain plasticity, or neuroplasticity, is the ability of the brain to modify its connections or rewire itself. It is the brain's ability to change and adapt due to experience.
There are two main types of brain plasticity: functional plasticity and structural plasticity. Functional plasticity is the brain's ability to move functions from a damaged area of the brain to other undamaged areas. Structural plasticity is the brain's ability to change its physical structure as a result of learning.
Brain plasticity is driven by complex genetic instructions and influenced by the environment. Neuronal connections and brain formation are processes that involve the strengthening or weakening of certain structures and parts of the brain. Brain plasticity can occur as a result of learning, experience, and memory formation, or as a result of damage to the brain.
