Neural plasticity

Neural comes from neurons which means nerves or from the nervous system. Plasticity comes from the word plastic, to be changeable, modifiable. We used to think that the brain functioned as the sum of its different parts performing its own function, but it’s been more than a century since we’ve come to understand that all of the brain works together and each part has a role to play, but cannot operate without the rest of it.

There are 2 types of brain plasticity: structural plasticity which means what it says, the brains’ architecture can modify itself as the outcome of learning and functional plasticity which means that the brain can reorganize itself to function adequately post-injury, i.e. stroke survivors that re-learn to walk and talk.

If you dive into the research, you will find that there are many other types of plasticity, but I’ll stick to this basic concept of the two types. The question asked in my previous post was can we alter the memory of a previously experienced movement and my response is mostly subjective in that I believe we can based on what I’ve read and what has resonated with me.

Doidge in 2007 in his phenomenal work on “The brain that changes itself” coined the term #neuroplasticity and claimed that the brain is capable of making new connections. In actuality, Donald Hebb had already made this revelation in 1949 when he discovered cell assembly. The result of this discovery was that if the axon of cell A fires repeatedly in close proximity to cell B that the strength of the connection will be increased therefore making it a successful link. Hence the term “neurons that fire together wire together”

This basically boils down to if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. More on this in my next post as the research is fascinating.

References:

Von Bernhardi, R., Bernhardi, L. E. V., & Eugenín, J. (2017). What is neural plasticity?. The plastic brain, 1-15.

Langille, J. J., & Brown, R. E. (2018). The synaptic theory of memory: a historical survey and reconciliation of recent opposition. Frontiers in systems neuroscience, 12, 52.

Puderbaugh M, Emmady PD. Neuroplasticity. [Updated 2023 May 1]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2023 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557811/