Throughout the class we have been asked to identify an aspect of human behavior that interests us and apply knowledge we have acquired through the class. Personally, I am very interested in the aspect of brain plasticity and what aspects of life and psychology play a crucial role in its activity. For this reason, my big question is “What largely impacts brain plasticity?”. However, before I go further into my research about brain plasticity it is important to define what brain plasticity is. Brain plasticity is the brain's ability to alter its structure and function following an experience or changes in the body (Brain Facts). The changes that occur in the brain due to brain plasticity could involve a growing or shrinking in grey matter, neural …show more content…
Brain plasticity is the ability of our brain to be able to learn therefore, to make the structural changes as mentioned before you have to learn something. Learning occurs over a person’s entire lifetime but more frequently occurs during childhood being that it is a critical period for attaining knowledge. Due to the fact that children are constantly learning, researchers observe increased plasticity in children. For example, children can learn another language easier than adults and when a child learns how to speak two languages fluently, instead of one, they show significant growth in the left inferior parietal cortex in comparison to those who only speak one language (Scachter et al.). This is a prime example of the brain compensating for new knowledge being acquired and the effect learning can have on the brain. Additionally, you can also see a difference between grey matter volume in those who can play an instrument than those who can’t. Different types of learning affects different regions of the brain and shows that brain plasticity is necessary if you continue to learn throughout your life (Michelon). Aside from general learning being important, how you learn is also important. If new knowledge is acquired by classical conditioning, operant conditioning, observational, implicit, explicit, et cetera, there will be differences in what regions of the brain are …show more content…
Certain stages of development are crucial and more vulnerable to change than other developmental periods. In children, the increased vulnerability to interactions creates an excitement in the child brain and can produce negative effects such as seizures. On the other hand, this increased excitement can help the brain compensate for brain trauma in children but does not guarantee that a child will recover better or faster than an adult. If the brain doesn’t fix connections, negative effects can arise, and more often in teenagers considering how many changes occur in their lives, especially in their brain structure and hormones. As a result of the brain changing so frequently, the probability of change occurring in regions of the brain that shouldn’t be changed increases (Johnston). Changes in certain brain regions have been connected to mental disorders and behaviors that are not exhibited in those that do not exhibit the same brain structure (Kolb, Gibb 2011). This connection to development and structure eludes to the next component of disorders and their relation to brain