By Wasim Kakroo
THE cells in our brain called neurons exchange chemicals with each other in order to communicate. These chemicals, known as neurotransmitters, move between neurons at locations known as synapses. When a child grows, learns, or responds to their environment, it leads to the development of new connections between neurons. This network of neurons contains everything including our knowledge, skills, memories, habits, and more.
The ability of the brain to modify the organization of its neural network is known as neuroplasticity. It has the capacity to grow new neurons, connect them to existing ones, and move or remove others. Since new alteration of previous neural connections and formation of new neural connections can lead to change in the behavior of a person, thus, the capacity for change in a person is known as NEUROPLASTICITY.
THE MECHANISMS OF NEUROPLASTICITY:
The brains of newborns are continually developing new neurons. As they develop, these cells form a huge number of connections. By the time a person reaches toddlerhood, they will have around twice as many neuronal connections as an adult will require.
The environment of the growing child will stimulate the brain, strengthening some connections. For instance, the neurons in charge of fine motor control will form connections when a youngster is taught how to sketch. The neurological connections for sketching will get denser and more established as a child practices it.
The brain removes neuronal connections it is no longer using during adolescence. The term “pruning” refers to this procedure. When inactive synapses are eliminated, the brain can concentrate its energy on creating new synapses for critical functions that are frequently used.
Because the neural pathways are easier to form at a younger age, synaptic pruning helps to explain why some things (like learning a second language) are easier to learn. However, the brain keeps changing and evolving over the course of a person’s life. At any age, new experiences have the power to fundamentally alter the way the brain is wired and functions. However, an individual’s overall level of brain plasticity will decline as they age. Brain changes could occur more gradually and with less impact. Elderly brains can still learn and grow, but it will happen more slowly than for younger brains.
HOW NEUROPLASTICITY CAN LEAD TO HEALING AND ADAPTATION?
Some brains can’t perform all of the functions that other brains can. A child who is born blind may already have some disabilities. After a stroke or a brain damage, a person may also lose their ability to function properly.
Neuroplasticity can help the brain overcome problems when a section of it is injured or impaired. Here are few strategies the brain can employ:
1) Relocate brain functions to an adjacent compatible region:
The brain can “shift” functions of a damaged area of a person’s brain to another area that functions similarly if the damage occurred during infancy. Take a child who suffered damage to their right parietal lobe, which helps in understanding one’s position in space. This ability might be moved to the corresponding left parietal lobe by the brain. This will enable the child, who has brain injury, to physically navigate their environment.
However, this strategy may have a serious disadvantage. The brain architecture for other skills may be crowded out by reassigning tasks. Usually, the left parietal lobe governs mathematical understanding (among other things). The child can have problems comprehending specific math concepts if the child’s neural connections for math have been overwritten during reassignment of functions.
2) Find a different way to do the task
Sometimes it’s impossible to move a brain function to some other area in the brain. The lost brain function can be made up for by rearrangement of neurons. A person “masks” the loss of a specific function by applying various skills to tackle a problem.
For instance, someone who has problems distinguishing between different faces could find it difficult to identify relatives and family. The problem might be resolved if their brain learns to recognize different voices, enabling them to recognize loved ones as soon as they speak.
3) Reconstruct Sensory Input
The brain’s sensory cortices are where senses like sight and touch are processed. These cortices use a similar “language” for processing data. The brain may provide information from other senses to a cortex when it does not get information from the sense that corresponds to it.
For instance, a person who is born blind won’t receive any sensory information from their eyes. The brain can “translate” information by using touch rather than letting the visual cortex go wasted. So a blind person can read Braille or traverse a room using touch rather than using light to process and understand their environment.
The longer a cortex has gone without input, the better the brain will typically be at translating sensory data. An adult who just suffered ear damage in an accident may have a harder time rerouting sensory signals than someone who has been deaf their entire life.
NEUROPLASTICITY AND PSYCHOLOGY
Counseling for mental health includes neuroplasticity as a crucial component. People in treatment are actually creating the new neural connections that promote resilience as they acquire new coping skills. The older neural connections that led to unhealthy behaviors and cognitive distortions will be replaced by new neural connections as people develop new ways of thinking, emoting and behaving through psychotherapy.
Neuroplasticity can also be enhanced by some psychotropic medications. Neuroplasticity is typically decreased in depressed people. In many cases, antidepressants can promote neuroplasticity and even repair the harm caused by a depressive episode.
Thus treating mental illness basically involves enhancing neuroplasticity. E.g., Neuroplasticity is frequently used by the brain to make up for cognitive impairment in the early stages of dementia. The total neuroplasticity of the brain can be enhanced by aerobic exercise and mentally demanding activities. According to research, these activities can help dementia sufferers slow the onset of their symptoms. When implemented early enough, psychotherapies can aid in initiating neuroplasticity and help the person deal with the bad influence of their genes as well as the influence of adverse childhood experiences and hence they may not live the rest of their life being their victim.
In the next article, I will write in detail about the neuroplasticity and epigenetics of psychotherapy. Stay tuned!
- The author is a licensed clinical psychologist (alumni of Govt. Medical College Srinagar) and works as a consultant clinical psychologist at Centre for Mental Health Services (CMHS) at Rambagh Srinagar. He can be reached at 8825067196
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