Effects%20of%20Environment%20on%20Physiological%20Processes

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Effects of Environment on Physiological Processes
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Neuroplasticity

• The brains ability to reorganize itself in
  response to the environment throughout the
  lifespan.

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Neuroplasticity

• Experiences are powerful modifiers of the brain.

• Experiences that affect neuroplasticity are
• Stimulating environments
• Sex hormones
• Diet
• Genetics
• Stress

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Neuroplasticity

• As behavior changes there must also be a
  corresponding change in the neural circuitry that
  produces behavior.

• Neurogenisis- when new neurons are created in
  response to experience.

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Research on Stimulating Environments

• Kolb (1999)
• Compared rats placed in enriched environments for
  three months to rats placed in standard cages.
• Enriched environments led to higher performance
  on a variety of behvioral tasks.

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Need to Tolerate Uncertainty

• Cant damage human brains in the lab.
• Rats, mice, and primates are subjects in most
  neuroplasticity experiments.

• We should not assume that human brains are
  plastic in the same ways as animals.

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Studies that deal with neuroplasticity.

• Small and Vorgan (2008)- iBrain
• Hull and Vaid (2006)- localization and
  bilingulaism

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Meet your iBrain

• Digital Technology is not only changing the way
  we live and communicate, but is rapidly altering
  our brains.

• As the brain evolves and shifts toward new
  technological skills, it drifts away from
  fundamental social skills.

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Meet your iBrain

• Small and Vorgan study
• Participants
• Three digitally naive people in 50s and 60s
• Three digital-savvy volunteers from the same age
  and socioeconomic group.

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Meet Your iBrain

• Procedure
• Participants were to perform an internet search
  task while receiving an fMRI.
• Each group was also given a control task of
  reading information to be able to factor out
  other sources of brain stimulation.
• After a baseline measurement was taken, both
  groups were asked to practice the search tasks
  for 1 hour a day for 5 days.
• A second set of results was taken after 5 days.

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Meet your iBrain

• Results
• The brains of computer savvy and computer naïve
  subjects showed no difference on the control
  task.
• In the baseline measurements, the computer savvy
  subjects showed distinctly different neural
  patterns than the naïve subjects.
• After five days, the naïve subjects now had the
  same neural patterns as the savvy subjects.

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Concluding ideas about Neuroplasticity

1. Neuroplasticity occurs throughout the lifespan,
   though the brain is most plastic early in life.
2. Behavior changes occur AFTER neuroplasticy
   changes.
3. The brain can reorganize itself after injury.
   The brain spontaneously reorganizes itself right
   after injury so this is the best time for
   treatment.