Monday, March 26, 2012

Magical Facts About Brain Parts And Brain Functions

We have heard about brain plasticity at one point or the other and its effect on our brain function and the different brain parts. Brain plasticity does not mean that the brain is made of plastic. Rather, brain plasticity refers to the neuroplasticity of our brain. Our brains reorganize themselves which makes them to keep changing. Brain reorganization has to do with the newly formed connections between one brain cell and the other. The brain cells are referred to as neurons. Brain plasticity occurs due to a collection of factors including our activities, our learning and environmental factors.

Additionally, brain plasticity may be caused by a brain injury resulting to a loss of a few brain functions. The brain is able to relocate the lost functions to another healthy place. For, instance, if an individual experiences a brain injury that makes him or her to be unable to move their hands; the hand movement can be restored through simulation and practice. This implies that the brain gradually shifts the functions and commands related to this activity to another healthy region within it.

Moreover, it is amazing to know that in our entire adulthood, we learn new things and when doing this enhances our brain plasticity. Majority of us have this misconception that, inter-neural connections remain static with aging. However, this is not true. New connections between our neurons continue even if we age and continue to learn new things. When an individual attempts to continue to grow his/her expertise in a given field, the particular area of the brain which is concerned with the field continues to grow and hence facilitates the learning.

Research has also proved that people who know multiple languages have more brain plasticity than the rest. This also applies to individuals that like getting involved in providing solutions to mathematical problems. Also, painters, poets and artists who utilize their creativity and imagination tend to have more brain plasticity than others. There are those people that have an interest in mind games like Sudoku, crossword puzzles, etc. For these game players, new inter-neural connections continue to develop resulting to the strengthening of the specific areas associated with these mind games.

Research has also shown that brain plasticity is more common in musicians than non-musicians. Cortex volume has been found to be high among professional musicians. On the other hand, amateur musicians have intermediate cortex volume and the non-musicians have the lowest volume, so far.

Brain plasticity and brain function can be improved by those who prefer to learn abstract things. This is made possible because of the learning functions and memory retrieval involved in the process of learning abstract things.

There are a few forms of brain plasticity that are worth mentioning. The first one is synaptic plasticity which is concerned with the way people learn and retain new information. The second one is neurogenesis. This has to do with the ability of the brain to create brain new cells as a way of replacing the dead ones in several brain parts. It can also be helpful in retaining the function of the brain.

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