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Summary psychology- plasticity and functional recovery of the brain
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These are my online notes about "Plasticity and Functional Recovery of the Brain" based on A Level AQA Psychology's "Biopsychology" topic.
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Plasticity and Functional Recovery- EvaluationThere is a common belief that brain plasticity decreases as we get older.
However it could be argued that Ladina Bezzola (2012) demonstrated that 40 hours of golf
training lead to the 40-60 year old participants having changes to their brains. The golfers
showed that they had a reduced motor activity in comparison to a control group.
On the other hand, the study is idiographic because it only observed one group of people in
a niche setting for a study and cannot be applied to other people.
This shows that brain plasticity does continue as we get older.
There is animal research that brain plasticity exists.
For instance, there was a study conducted by David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel (1963)
involving sowing a kitten’s eye shut and analysing the brain’s cortical responses. They both
found that the area of the visual cortex (occipital lobe) of the shut eye was not inactive but
helped to send information to the other eye.
However the study itself can be deemed unethical as it placed harm on a kitten
unnecessarily, and it also cannot be generalised to humans as cats and humans may
process visual information differently.
Therefore the animal study provides strong support that there is still activity happening in the
brain, even when there’s a limitation (e.g body mutilation) of how you gain information
externally.
When the brain rewires itself, it could lead to negative behavioural consequences.
60-80% of amputees developed phantom limb syndrome- when there is a continued
sensation of the missing limb as if it still was connected to the body. The sensations are
usually painful because of cortical reorganisation in the somatosensory cortex
However it is considered to be biologically reductionist because it only focuses on the bodily
functions of the limbs and rewiring of neurons rather than external factors such as the
environment the person is in and how it affects the brain rewiring.
Therefore neuroplasticity can be negative in terms of controlling the body’s functions.
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