The neuroplasticity is the key to our developing and of the changes that we experience from birth, according to an article about him brain developed by Loles Villalobos Turnerresearcher at the Department of experimental psychology, cognitive processes and speech therapy, Complutense University of Madrid.
What is neuroplasticity?
we call neuroplasticity to the extraordinary capacity of our thinking organ to transform and functionally and physically reconfigure its structure in response to environmental stimuli, behavioral experiences or cognitive demands. In short, to the situations we live.
This is possible mainly thanks to the creation and control of the number of neuronsthe migration of these nerve cells and the formation of new connections.
What is the importance of this ability?
Recent studies have shown the effect of neuroplasticity in patients with communication problems (aphasia) after suffering a brain injury. For the vast majority of people, language is located in the left hemisphere: important regions of that half of the brain must function properly for us to understand and produce words.
When this mechanism is interrupted by a stroke, it is necessary to appeal to the neuroplasticity if we intend to recover what was lost. Thus, it has been discovered that an intensive therapy on the language it is able to recover the functioning of the damaged regions of the left hemisphere and their connections.
- It can even cause changes in structures of the right hemisphere, further aiding recovery.
Do taxi drivers have a more developed brain?
Experience is the cause of these changes to occur. a classic study revealed that London taxi drivers, experts at memorizing the city’s routes and nimbly navigating its streets, were louder than normal in certain areas of the hippocampus.
This brain region, belonging to the limbic system and located in our temporal lobe, is strongly associated with our memory; especially, to our spatial memory and our ability to orientate.
The role of music in neuroplasticity
Does the neuroplasticiity in a healthy brain? Could it be the key, since we have brought up music, to learn to play an instrument? Yes. In fact, the correct formulation would be to say that acquiring any new skill requires changes in our brain.
Musical training has been considered an interesting framework to investigate the neuroplasticity induced in healthy brains. The researchers verified that the music therapy improved the executive functions of the affected patients after three months, and that the changes were maintained over time.
