Neuroplasticity Essay
Neuroplasticity is the brain 's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. It allows the nerve cells in the brain, neurons, to compensate for injury and disease and to adjust their activities in response to new situations or to changes in their environment. Think of your brain like the leaves of a sunflower. Their leaves grow and move to face the sun throughout the day so that it is more effective in its functions to maintain life. This is quite similar to the day-to-day changes in your brain because the sunflower is adapting to its environment by changing its structure just as the neurons are produced and make different connections throughout the brain.
It was once thought that after the development of
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Current work supports the view that the brain’s capacity for change over time persists throughout life, supporting cognitive functions and offering the potential for targeted treatments to recover healthy brain function in patients with a broad range of psychiatric disorders. This is called neurogenesis, the creation of new neurons. It largely occurs in the developing brain although over the last decade or so it’s been found that limited neurogenesis occurs in the adult brain. The Hippocampal region is a crucial part of neuroplasticity, according to a study done on London taxi cab drivers. This study helped scientists figure out that new neurons are born in the brain’s hippocampal region. The results of the study found that cab drivers had unusually large hippocampi because of how they had memorized how to navigate the city. Another study found that after people had been practicing piano at different levels, the subjects who had practiced more had an enlarged motor cortex. Evidence found that the average adult generates 1,400 new hippocampal neurons every day. When practicing an action consistently there was tangible change shown from the fMRI scans taken after these sessions generally resulting in increased masses in the part of the brain related to the action. This is because new synapses are making those connections
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