Neuroplasticity and the Brain’s Regenerative Potential
With a background in the US Armed Forces, including service as chief neuropsychologist for the Air Force, Alan E. Brooker is both a forensic and clinical neuropsychologist and medical examiner based in Northern California. Having achieved extensive certification over decades of service in his field, Alan E. Brooker retains an abiding interest in brain function.
A term coined by a Polish neuroscientist in the late 1940s, neuroplasticity refers to physiological changes that enable the brain to adapt to new and mutable surroundings. This ability can be particularly important after trauma. The brain’s neurons have the ability to reorganize following traumatic events and to change in ways that reflect new realities.
There are two main ways that this occurs, with structural neuroplasticity involving changes in the strength of connections between synapses, or neurons. By contrast, when the synapses themselves undergo permanent changes due to development and learning, this is known as functional neuroplasticity.
From a psychological perspective, this makes it possible for past traumatic events to be overcome through modified thought patterns. In some cases, fear-based avoidance behaviors and anxiety-causing memories can be transformed into productive forms of self-knowledge.
Recent research has found that the forging of new neural pathways and connections embodied in neuroplasticity is augmented by neurogenesis, or the brain’s ability to grow new neurons.
A term coined by a Polish neuroscientist in the late 1940s, neuroplasticity refers to physiological changes that enable the brain to adapt to new and mutable surroundings. This ability can be particularly important after trauma. The brain’s neurons have the ability to reorganize following traumatic events and to change in ways that reflect new realities.
There are two main ways that this occurs, with structural neuroplasticity involving changes in the strength of connections between synapses, or neurons. By contrast, when the synapses themselves undergo permanent changes due to development and learning, this is known as functional neuroplasticity.
From a psychological perspective, this makes it possible for past traumatic events to be overcome through modified thought patterns. In some cases, fear-based avoidance behaviors and anxiety-causing memories can be transformed into productive forms of self-knowledge.
Recent research has found that the forging of new neural pathways and connections embodied in neuroplasticity is augmented by neurogenesis, or the brain’s ability to grow new neurons.
