What is neuroplasticity?
304588#2
Due to more recent Medical, Rehabilitation and ongoing results 'neuroplasticity' within the mechanics of our brains lead to re-arrangement of the brain's workings. These often result in the synapses arranging alternate routes, to achieve previous habits. Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to reorganise itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. Neuroplasticity allows the neurons (nerve cells) in the brain to compensate for injury and disease and to adjust their activities in response to new situations or to changes in their environment.
Brain damage
26011#21
Neuroplasticity is defined as the brain's ability to reorganize itself, lay new pathways, and rearrange existing ones, as a result of experience. Neuronal changes after damage to the brain such as collateral sprouting, increased activation of the homologous areas, and map extension demonstrate the brain's neuroplastic abilities. According to Thomson, "Portions of the right hemisphere, extended left brain sites, or both have been shown to be recruited to perform language functions after brain damage. All of the neuronal changes recruit areas not originally or directly responsible for large portions of linguistic processing. Principles of neuroplasticity have been proven effective in neurorehabilitation after damage to the brain. These principles include: incorporating multiple modalities into treatment to create stronger neural connections, using stimuli that evoke positive emotion, linking concepts with simultaneous and related presentations, and finding the appropriate intensity and duration of treatment for each individual patient.
Receptive aphasia
1948637#46
This implied neuroplasticity during the critical period. However, Merzenich argued that neuroplasticity could occur beyond the critical period. His first encounter with adult plasticity came when he was engaged in a postdoctoral study with Clinton Woosley. The experiment was based on observation of what occurred in the brain when one peripheral nerve was cut and subsequently regenerated. The two scientists micromapped the hand maps of monkey brains before and after cutting a peripheral nerve and sewing the ends together. Afterwards, the hand map in the brain that they expected to be jumbled was nearly normal. This was a substantial breakthrough. Merzenich asserted that, "If the brain map could normalize its structure in response to abnormal input, the prevailing view that we are born with a hardwired system had to be wrong. The brain had to be plastic." Merzenich received the 2016 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience "for the discovery of mechanisms that allow experience and neural activity to remodel brain function."
Neuroplasticity
1948637#10
A surprising consequence of neuroplasticity is that the brain activity associated with a given function can be transferred to a different location; this can result from normal experience and also occurs in the process of recovery from brain injury. Neuroplasticity is the fundamental issue that supports the scientific basis for treatment of acquired brain injury with goal-directed experiential therapeutic programs in the context of rehabilitation approaches to the functional consequences of the injury.
Neuroplasticity
56650358#0
Neuroplastic or neuroplastic and reconstructive surgery is the surgical specialty involved in reconstruction or restoration of patients who undergo surgery of the central or peripheral nervous system. The field includes a wide variety of surgical procedures that seek to restore or replace a patient’s skull, scalp, dura (the protective covering of the brain and spinal cord), the spine and/or its overlying tissues.
Neuroplastic surgery
1948637#24
Neuroplasticity is most active in childhood as a part of normal human development, and can also be seen as an especially important mechanism for children in terms of risk and resiliency. Trauma is considered a great risk as it negatively affects many areas of the brain and puts strain on the sympathetic nervous system from constant activation. Trauma thus alters the brain's connections such that children who have experienced trauma may be hyper vigilant or overly aroused. However a child's brain can cope with these adverse effects through the actions of neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity
20510214#0
Activity-dependent plasticity is a form of functional and structural neuroplasticity that arises from the use of cognitive functions and personal experience; hence, it is the biological basis for learning and the formation of new memories. Activity-dependent plasticity is a form of neuroplasticity that arises from intrinsic or endogenous activity, as opposed to forms of neuroplasticity that arise from extrinsic or exogenous factors, such as electrical brain stimulation- or drug-induced neuroplasticity. The brain's ability to remodel itself forms the basis of the brain's capacity to retain memories, improve motor function, and enhance comprehension and speech amongst other things. It is this trait to retain and form memories that is associated with neural plasticity and therefore many of the functions individuals perform on a daily basis. This plasticity occurs as a result of changes in gene expression which are triggered by signaling cascades that are activated by various signaling molecules (e.g., calcium, dopamine, and glutamate, among many others) during increased neuronal activity.
Activity-dependent plasticity
1948637#11
Neuroplasticity is gaining popularity as a theory that, at least in part, explains improvements in functional outcomes with physical therapy post-stroke. Rehabilitation techniques that are supported by evidence which suggest cortical reorganization as the mechanism of change include constraint-induced movement therapy, functional electrical stimulation, treadmill training with body-weight support, and virtual reality therapy. Robot assisted therapy is an emerging technique, which is also hypothesized to work by way of neuroplasticity, though there is currently insufficient evidence to determine the exact mechanisms of change when using this method.
Neuroplasticity
1948637#1
Neuroplasticity can be observed at multiple scales, from microscopic changes in individual neurons to larger-scale changes such as cortical remapping in response to injury. Behavior, environmental stimuli, thought, and emotions may also cause neuroplastic change through activity-dependent plasticity, which has significant implications for healthy development, learning, memory, and recovery from brain damage. At the single cell level, synaptic plasticity refers to changes in the connections between neurons, whereas non-synaptic plasticity refers to changes in their intrinsic excitability.
One of the fundamental principles underlying neuroplasticity is based on the idea that individual synaptic connections are constantly being removed or recreated, largely dependent upon the activity of the neurons that bear them. The activity-dependence of synaptic plasticity is captured in the aphorism which is often used to summarize Hebbian theory: "neurons that fire together, wire together"/"neurons that fire out of sync, fail to link". If two nearby neurons often produce an impulse in close temporal proximity, their functional properties may converge. Conversely, neurons that are not regularly activated simultaneously may be less likely to functionally converge.
Neuroplasticity
56650358#1
Neuroplastic surgery has adapted reconstructive principles from the fields of craniofacial surgery, and plastic and reconstructive surgery and refined them in order to address challenging deformities which result from Neurosurgical Procedures. The first center for Neuroplastic and Reconstructive Surgery was started at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland by a formal collaboration between the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, under the guidance of plastic surgeon Chad Gordon, and the Department of Neurosurgery under the guidance of neurosurgeon Judy Huang. Upon arrival to Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dr. Chad Gordon formed a multi-disciplinary team of physicians, scientists and engineers. The team’s unified goal was to develop techniques and devices to treat neurosurgical patients. These advances led to several publications and patents, and allowed for the establishment of the first formal fellowship training program in Neuroplastic and Reconstructive Surgery. In March 2018, Dr. Gordon was appointed the Director of Neuroplastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Johns Hopkins.
Neuroplastic surgery