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1.3.14 Brain Plasticity: Neuroplasticity Examples
Brain plasticity, or neuroplasticity, is the ability of the brain to restructure or reorganize in response to events or experience. For example, a young child who trains as a pianist experiences some modification in the cortex as a result of that musical training.
While your brain is in some measure, “adapted to adapt,” brain plasticity does not mean your brain consists of a lot of generalized matter that can do pretty much anything. Plasticity simply means a module can take on some functioning for which it was not specifically adapted, provided that functioning relates to what the module would ordinarily do.
Cross-modal plasticity refers to the ability of your brain’s modules to reorganize themselves somewhat to take advantage of cortical modules not being used due to sensory loss. For example, loss or absence of vision can stimulate some brain module reorganization, enhancing a blind person’s sense of pitch and direction. Blind individuals often have extraordinary musical skills.
The effect of plasticity is much more evident in childhood. In blind people, pitch discrimination (the ability to judge the direction of extremely rapid pitch change) is much keener than in sighted people, especially if the individual became blind before the age of two. It’s easier to learn to play a musical instrument or to speak more than one language in childhood because the brain is receptive to applying its built-in music and language processing modules to any language and any musical culture during childhood. After a period of time, called the critical period, plasticity diminishes sharply as the various modules become fully functional. If you don’t learn early, your brain is pre-wired to move on to the next stage, and you lose the window of opportunity.