Psychology notes that gained me an A* at A Level. I created this using textbooks, mark schemes, class notes and my own further research to provide a comprehensive set of notes. This is formatted according to the AQA psychology specification, where each point is covered, but regardless of the exam b...
Brain plasticity: brain has ability to change throughout our lifetime. During
infancy, a no of synaptic connections are formed. As we age, rarely used
connections are deleted, frequently used are strengthened = synaptic pruning.
SP enables lifelong plasticity as we form new neural connections in response to
new demands of the brain.
Ao3:
Maguire found that taxi drivers had large volumes of grey matter in their
hippocampus than a control group. This area of the brain is associated w spatial
and navigational skills. The longer in the profession, the more pronounced the
structural difference.
Limitation of the brain’s ability to rewire itself is that it can have negative
effects. Prolonged drug use is shown to have poorer cognitive ability, and 60-
80% of amputees develop phantom limb syndrome. This is due to cortical
reorganisation in the somatosensory area of the brain. The brain adapts but it
is maladaptive.
Even though plasticity reduces with age it is a lifelong ability. Bezzola found
that 40 hours of golf training resulted in neural connections adapting. Shows
neural plasticity cam continue throughout the lifespan.
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