My
mother lives by the saying, “Think positive, because the more you think that
way, the more you believe it.” Little does she know that the positive metal
attitude that she is always striving for is a subset of neuroplasticity, which
is what this article is all about. It addresses the old beliefs that the brain
was hard-wired from birth and therefore unable to change in any major way as we
grow up, and cites many instances that have proven this belief inaccurate. Of
note are examples of people suffering from brain-damaging experiences (i.e.
strokes) who have been able to regain a function that was lost due to the incident.
It is emphasized that these changes do not come about easily; the brain needs
ample practice to make progress, just as a knee requires physical therapy after
surgery. Genetics is a consideration when arguing how effective neuroplasticity
may be, in that about 50% of how our minds function is not up to us, but our
DNA. Although it is said that our genes dictate half of the functionality of
our minds, even that is up for debate among researchers.
Here
is where epigenetics is placed under the microscope – is it possible that the
factors manipulating our genes could give us an added level of control over our
neural processes? Some say yes, some say no. My counter to that point was, To
what extent are we able to control epigenetics? Isn’t that practically just as
out of our reach as determining our own genes?
Yet, if half of how our minds
work is controlled by our environment, perhaps by
consciously choosing a more mind-healthy lifestyle we really do have the power
to be anything we want to be. Whether regaining the ability to speak after having a stroke, or increasing daily
positive thoughts, the plasticity of the brain is an amazing thing. Understanding how dynamic it
truly is holds promise for future treatment of mental illnesses and brain
injuries, and to improve quality of life for anyone making an effort to change their mental attitude.
Link to the fascinating article:
This question from the article you posted really stood out to me: "Can we lower our risk of dementia by 60%?" In fact, there is a lot of interesting research looking at Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and neural plasticity. The research I read was looking at the progression of dendritic branching with respect to progression of AD. The researchers studied the hippocampus in particular because it is one of the first areas of the brain to be affected by AD. I found figure 5 particularly interesting as it shows that patients with mild cognitive impairment (B) experience much more dendritic branching than those patients with no cognitive impairment (A) as a neuroplastic compensatory response to early AD. It appears as though neural plasticity plays a big role in the early stages of AD, and it is an amazing feat of science to be able to visualize it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306452215002213