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All 12 Flashcards — Neuroplasticity
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Question
What is neuroplasticity?
Answer
The brain's ability to change and reorganise — connections grow and strengthen with experience, or reroute after damage.
Question
What is synaptic strengthening?
Answer
When connections that are used repeatedly become stronger and faster.
Question
What is pruning?
Answer
Removing connections that are rarely used — 'use it or lose it'.
Question
How does neuroplasticity explain learning a skill?
Answer
Practising fires the same connections again and again, so they strengthen and the skill becomes automatic.
Question
How does neuroplasticity explain recovery after injury?
Answer
Healthy areas can slowly take over some jobs of a damaged area, so lost abilities can partly return.
Question
Which concept does neuroplasticity most illustrate?
Answer
Change — behaviour and the brain change together through experience, rather than being fixed.
Question
One strength of neuroplasticity as an explanation?
Answer
Brain imaging can show real, physical changes after practice, and it explains recovery after injury.
Question
One limitation of neuroplasticity as an explanation?
Answer
It is hard to prove practice alone caused the change, since many life factors change at once.
Question
Why does age matter for neuroplasticity?
Answer
Plasticity tends to slow with age, so change is not equally easy for everyone.
Question
Is all neuroplastic change helpful?
Answer
No — rewiring can also strengthen unhelpful habits, so change is not always positive.
Question
What does 'use it or lose it' mean for the brain?
Answer
Connections you use are strengthened; connections you don't use are pruned away.
Question
Does imaging a brain change tell us why it happened?
Answer
No — imaging shows that a change occurred, not exactly what caused it.
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Full study notes for Neuroplasticity
Topic 2.1 hub
Biological approach
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