What is Brain Plasticity?
“The stuff that drives scientists into their laboratories instead of onto the golf links is the passion to answer questions, hopefully important questions, about the nature of nature. Getting a fix on important questions and how to think about them from an experimental point of view is what scientists talk about, sometimes endlessly. It is those conversations that thrill and motivate.” — Neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga Alvin Toffler, the noted author said, “The illiterates of the future are not those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and re-learn,” but what happens inside of the human brain to foster those events commonly described as “learning,” which is the goal formal education? In order to avoid being among those illiterates of the future, how should we modify our classroom instruction so that it conforms to the latest research findings concerning the brain? Cortical plasticity refers to the brain ability to continue exercising its flexible nature by
Brain plasticity is a term which is used to refer the brain’s unique ability to constantly change, grow, and remap itself over the course of a lifetime. The “plastic” in this sense refers to “moldable,” rather than to the family of products derived from petrochemicals. This distinctive trait makes the brain a very valuable organ, as it can constantly adapt itself to deal with new input and information. All animals possess brain plasticity, to some extent, although most studies have focused specifically on the workings of the human brain. There are three different types of brain plasticity. The first occurs when infants are born and start developing into children. Studies have shown that the immature brain grows and creates neural networks at an unprecedented rate, as the brain is flooded with new sensory input from the outside world. The second type occurs over the course of a lifetime, as the brain changes with age to reflect new experiences and events. Additionally, the brain demonst
Does it mean that our brains are made of plastic? Of course not. Plasticity, or neuroplasticity, is the lifelong ability of the brain to reorganize neural pathways based on new experiences. As we learn, we acquire new knowledge and skills through instruction or experience. In order to learn or memorize a fact or skill, there must be persistent functional changes in the brain that represent the new knowledge. The ability of the brain to change with learning is what is known as neuroplasticity. To illustrate the concept of plasticity, imagine the film of a camera. Pretend that the film represents your brain. Now imagine using the camera to take a picture of a tree. When a picture is taken, the film is exposed to new information — that of the image of a tree. In order for the image to be retained, the film must react to the light and change to record the image of the tree. Similarly, in order for new knowledge to be retained in memory, changes in the brain representing the new knowledge
