What is neuroplasticity?
Neuroplasticity is how much the nervous system will adapt itself to stimuli. Frances Jensen, MD, neurology department chair at the University of Pennsylvania explains what makes the brain so adaptable.
Transcript
The brain is a marvelously adaptable organ. It's the most adaptable organ of in our entire bodies.
And we have a lifetime to continue that adaptation. And synaptic plasticity is sort of at the core. [DOWNTEMPO MUSIC]
So neuroplasticity is essentially similar to synaptic plasticity. It's the plastic nature of the nervous system.
It's sort of nature versus nurture. It's how much the nervous system will adapt itself to the environment or to the experience of that brain
and that individual. The brain is a marvelously adaptable organ. It's the most adaptable organ in our entire bodies.
And we have a lifetime to continue that adaptation. And synaptic plasticity is sort of the core. It's how brain cells at their synapses with each repeated
impulse, if it's happening very rapidly, say, a practice effect, that synapse grows physically
larger, physically larger, so that the next time that situation comes up, the impulse is much stronger.
And we believe that this is sort of the foundation for memory. We call it long-term potentiation, long-term
potentiation meaning making stronger that connection or that memory. And a lot of research actually has
been done on the effects of different experiences, or drugs, or different content that the brain sees
on this process of long-term potentiation. It's sort of a workhorse for laboratories
who study memory and learning. It's actually done in a very interesting way. You can measure two brain cells by stimulating
one and recording from the other and watch this process happen. If you stimulate the first brain cell
and you watch how the second brain cell responds, it will gradually develop an increased response if it keeps seeing the same stimulus.
This can be done in a brain slice removed from an animal, for instance, in which you can actually
put electrodes in and cause this process to happen. And you can measure all these proteins that I've been talking about to show
that the structure and function of these synapses has been actually changed. You can also measure it in actual living animals
where you might be recording. And we're learning a lot about drugs that might improve memory, drugs that might--
or experiences that might diminish that process and lower chemicals that are responsible for this strengthening process.
It's actually something that happens in a very fast period of time. This process of building the size of your synapse
starts within milliseconds to seconds and can actually consolidate within hours.
So if there's anything I'm saying that's new, you may be building those synapses in just listening to this information.
[DOWNTEMPO MUSIC] [AUDIO LOGO]
brain health nervous system
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