http://www.clinph-journal.com/article/S1388-2457(17)30679-X/fulltext
Cairo University, Department of Neurophysiology, Cairo, Egypt
Neuroplasticity
is defined as the property of the brain to adapt to environmental
pressures, experiences, and challenges including brain damage. It is a
lifelong capacity of the brain to change and rewire itself in response
to the stimulation of learning and experience. Based upon this input,
several conclusions were recently appearing on the surface. First, there
appears to be tremendous latent plasticity even in the adult brain.
Second, the brain should be thought of, not as a hierarchy of organized
autonomous modules, each of which delivers its output to the next level,
but as a set of complex interacting networks that are in a state of
dynamic equilibrium with the brain’s environment. Both principles can be
potentially exploited in a clinical context to facilitate recovery of
function. Promoting neuroplasticity in an enriched environment will
eventually result in dendritic branching, synapses, glial processes,
brain weight, and cortical thickness. Currently, it is believed that
activity drives reorganization of cerebral networks, which is paralleled
by functional improvements in cases of acquired brain injuries that are
usually in need of intense rehabilitation programs. Numeral studies
have demonstrated reorganization of brain activity pattern in response
to intense training of motor and cognitive tasks and imagination of
movements. For instance, promising results were shown using feedback
techniques, like mirror visual feedback (MVF) improving chronic regional
pain syndrome and hemiparesis following stroke. Evidence based
therapeutic interventions using neuroplasticity as its base include
aerobic exercise, bilateral arm training, constraint induced movement
therapy,body weight supported treadmill training, mirror therapy, action
observation, motor imagery/mental practice, functional electrical
stimulation and music therapy.Promising therapies that may enhance
training-induced cognitive and motor learning, such as brain stimulation
and neuropharmacological interventions, were also identified, along
with arousing questions involving more updated ways to use
neuroplasticity in improving quality of life in cases of human
disability.
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