How Cerebral Plasticity Is Produced

How cerebral plasticity is produced

Introduction

Cerebral plasticity: The term "plasticity" has been used to describe various exchange rates associated with neuron and its connections. Plasticity is defined as the ability of a neuron to adapt to changes in the internal or external environment, to the previous experience or to the lesions (gispen). Plasticity is related to the enormous flexibility found in mammals, especially in man, and that explains the great adaptive capacity of organisms, that is, the ability of the brain to build neural communications that can store vital information forThe agency, such as memory, executive activities, learning among others.

Developing

Natural or intrinsic plasticity: the existence of this plasticity is demonstrated with different phenomena, among which can be highlighted: neurogenesis, the replacement of synapses that have been destroyed naturally. The reactivity of astrocytes and neuroglia, added to the constant repair of small injuries by creating new synapses. Adaptive plasticity: It is the type of plasticity to which we are exposed every day. Its purpose is the optimization of the functions of the nervous system through the appearance and disappearance of synapses and the increase or decrease in the effectiveness of these. 

It is related to experience. We cannot speak of mental plasticity, without relating it to the age of the individual, since this brain phenomenon can occur at any stage of life, however, age is a determining factor that conditions the degree of transformation that the system may experienceNervous of a subject.

In other words, the degree of plasticity is inversely proportional to the age of the person. Children have greater capacity for learning and greater recovery of functions. 

That is, an aged brain for its degree and complexity of established neural networks has less ease of reconstructing than that of a child, since the latter is constantly brain change due to the interaction with the environment it presents and this causes the construction of the construction ofnew neural networks;The aged brain shows patterns of neuronal atrophy and functional decline, in addition to cell death. Throughout the normal aging process, the brain has quantitative and qualitative changes in: number of neurons, dendritic extension and synapse number and structure (school and flood, Brody). 

conclusion

These anatomical changes, which are specific to certain regions (such as cortex or hippocampus), are probably related to decreases both in behavioral capacity and in the plasticity associated with aging. This decrease in plasticity is reflected in different changes that could explain, at least, the physiological and cognitive deterioration associated with age. The aged brain responds less adaptive to physiological and environmental stimuli, both at a cellular and systemic level (Walsh and Opello). Therefore, the stimulation of minors and interaction with their environment is crucial for their development.