Verywellmind - What Is Neuroplasticity?

“Neuroplasticity, also known as brain plasticity, is a term that refers to the brain's ability to change and adapt as a result of experience. Although, when people say that the brain possesses plasticity, they are not suggesting that the brain is similar to plastic.

Plasticity refers to the brain's malleability, which is defined as being "easily influenced, trained, or controlled."1 Neuro refers to neurons, the nerve cells that are the building blocks of the brain and nervous system. Thus, neuroplasticity is when nerve cells change or adjust.

What Is Neuroplasticity?

The human brain is composed of approximately 100 billion neurons.2 Early researchers believed that neurogenesis, or the creation of new neurons, stopped shortly after birth.

Today, it's understood that the brain possesses the remarkable capacity to reorganize pathways, create new connections, and, in some cases, even create new neurons—a concept called neuroplasticity or brain plasticity.

There are two main types of neuroplasticity:

• Functional plasticity: the brain's ability to move functions from a damaged area of the brain to other undamaged areas
• Structural plasticity: the brain's ability to actually change its physical structure as a result of learning

How Neuroplasticity Works

The first few years of a child's life are a time of rapid brain growth. At birth, every neuron in the cerebral cortex has an estimated 2,500 synapses or small gaps between the neurons where nerve impulses are relayed. By the age of three, this number has grown to a whopping 15,000 synapses per neuron.3

The average adult, however, only has about half that number of synapses. Why? Because as we gain new experiences, some connections are strengthened while others are eliminated. This process is known as synaptic pruning.

Neurons that are used frequently develop stronger connections and those that are rarely or never used eventually die. By developing new connections and pruning away weak ones, the brain is able to adapt to the changing environment.

Benefits of Neuroplasticity

There are many benefits of brain neuroplasticity. In allowing your brain to adapt and change, this helps promote:4

• The ability to learn new things
• The ability to enhance your existing cognitive capabilities
• Recovery from strokes and traumatic brain injuries
• Strengthening areas if some functions are lost or decline
• Improvements that can boost brain fitness
  

Characteristics of Neuroplasticity

There are a few defining characteristics of neuroplasticity.

Age and Environment Play a Role

While plasticity occurs throughout the lifetime, certain types of changes are more predominant at specific ages. The brain tends to change a great deal during the early years of life, for example, as the immature brain grows and organizes itself.

Generally, young brains tend to be more sensitive and responsive to experiences than much older brains.5 But this does not mean that adult brains are not capable of adaptation.

Genetics can have an influence as well. The interaction between the environment and genetics also plays a role in shaping the brain's plasticity.6

Neuroplasticity Is an Ongoing Process

Plasticity is ongoing throughout life and involves brain cells other than neurons, including glial and vascular cells. It can occur as a result of learning, experience, and memory formation, or as a result of damage to the brain.

In instances of damage to the brain, such as during a stroke, the areas of the brain associated with certain functions may be injured. Eventually, healthy parts of the brain may take over those functions and the abilities can be restored.8

Brain Plasticity Also Has Limitations

It is important to note, however, that the brain is not infinitely malleable. Certain areas of the brain are largely responsible for certain actions. For example, there are areas of the brain that play critical roles in things such as movement, language, speech, and cognition.

Damage to key areas of the brain can result in deficits in those areas because, while some recovery may be possible, other areas of the brain simply cannot fully take over those functions that were affected by the damage.9

How to Improve Neuroplasticity

There are things you can do to help encourage your brain to adapt and change. Some of the ways that you can utilize neuroplasticity in beneficial ways include:

Enriching Your Environment

Learning environments that offer plenty of opportunities for focused attention, novelty, and challenge have been shown to stimulate positive changes in the brain. This is particularly important during childhood and adolescence, but enriching your environment can continue to provide brain rewards well into adulthood.10

Things you can try include:

• Learning a new language
• Learning how to play an instrument
• Traveling and exploring new places
• Creating art and other creative pursuits
• Reading

Getting Plenty of Rest

Research has shown that sleep plays an important role in dendritic growth in the brain.11 Dendrites are the growths at the end of neurons that help transmit information from one neuron to the next. By strengthening these connections, you may be able to encourage greater brain plasticity.

Sleep has been shown to have important effects on both physical and mental health. Some researchers suggest that this is partly due to genetics and partly due to the makeup of the grey matter in the brain.12

You can find ways to improve your sleep by practicing good sleep hygiene. This includes developing a consistent sleep schedule and creating an environment that contributes to good sleep.

Exercising Regularly

Regular physical activity has a number of brain benefits. Some research indicates that exercise might help prevent neuron loss in key areas of the hippocampus,13 a part of the brain involved in memory and other functions. Other studies suggest that exercise plays a role in new neuron formation in this same region.14

A 2021 study adds that physical exercise appears to also boost brain plasticity through its impact on brain-derived neurotrophic factor (a protein that impacts nerve growth), functional connectivity, and the basal ganglia—the part of the brain responsible for motor control and learning.15

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends getting at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio exercises (such as walking, dancing, swimming, or cycling) per week and a minimum of two days of strength training exercises (lifting weights or doing bodyweight exercises).16

A Word From Verywell

The brain has an amazing ability to change throughout the course of our life, allowing us to learn new things or recover after sustaining a brain-based injury. Though, there are limitations as to how much the brain can adapt.

Constantly challenging ourselves, making sleep a priority, and getting regular exercise can also help improve brain plasticity. Avoiding certain substances is beneficial as well. ”

- By Kendra Cherry

Read the source article here

What do you think of this concept? How do you think you could apply it in your own life?

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