Neural pruning
Neurons are responsible for the changes that occur in the brain
because of learning a new skill or experience. These causes our brain to
be physically sculpted by each experience, causing continious changes
within our life time. Repeated experiences can lead to long term
potentiation where the synapse becomes stronger due to repeated use.
When the synapse is not used or is under stimulated synaptic pruning
occurs; the brain removes the synapse to make the neural networks more
efficient.
Synaptic pruning can be seen in Draganski’s study. He aimed to see if
learning juggling as a new skill would influence the participants’ brain. The
sample consisted of 24 volunteers between the ages of 20 and 24 made
up of 21 females and 3 males who were unable to juggle at the beginning
of this study. The participants all took an MRI scan before beginning the
procedure. They were then allocated to a juggling or non-juggling
condition. Those who were chosen to juggle were taught a three-ball
cascade juggling routine and were told to practice this routine and to
notify the researchers when they had mastered it. Once they had they
came in for a second MRI scan after which they were told not to juggle
anymore until they took another MRI scan three months later. The MRI
scans where analysed by the researchers using voxel-based
morphometry to determine if there were significant differences in neural
density in the brains of jugglers and non-jugglers. The results of these
scans showed that from the baseline scans, they found no significant
regional differences in grey matter between the two conditions. However,
the jugglers showed a significantly larger amount of grey matter in the
mid-temporal area in both hemispheres. This area is associated with
visual memory. Three months after the participants stopped juggling the
amount of grey matter in these parts of the brain had decreased, but
there was no change over the duration of the study in the non-juggling
sample.
To conclude, this study shows synaptic pruning as the under
stimulation caused by the lack of juggling caused the brain to remove the
synapses which led to a decrease is the size of brain parts responsible for
that behaviour.
Neurons are responsible for the changes that occur in the brain
because of learning a new skill or experience. These causes our brain to
be physically sculpted by each experience, causing continious changes
within our life time. Repeated experiences can lead to long term
potentiation where the synapse becomes stronger due to repeated use.
When the synapse is not used or is under stimulated synaptic pruning
occurs; the brain removes the synapse to make the neural networks more
efficient.
Synaptic pruning can be seen in Draganski’s study. He aimed to see if
learning juggling as a new skill would influence the participants’ brain. The
sample consisted of 24 volunteers between the ages of 20 and 24 made
up of 21 females and 3 males who were unable to juggle at the beginning
of this study. The participants all took an MRI scan before beginning the
procedure. They were then allocated to a juggling or non-juggling
condition. Those who were chosen to juggle were taught a three-ball
cascade juggling routine and were told to practice this routine and to
notify the researchers when they had mastered it. Once they had they
came in for a second MRI scan after which they were told not to juggle
anymore until they took another MRI scan three months later. The MRI
scans where analysed by the researchers using voxel-based
morphometry to determine if there were significant differences in neural
density in the brains of jugglers and non-jugglers. The results of these
scans showed that from the baseline scans, they found no significant
regional differences in grey matter between the two conditions. However,
the jugglers showed a significantly larger amount of grey matter in the
mid-temporal area in both hemispheres. This area is associated with
visual memory. Three months after the participants stopped juggling the
amount of grey matter in these parts of the brain had decreased, but
there was no change over the duration of the study in the non-juggling
sample.
To conclude, this study shows synaptic pruning as the under
stimulation caused by the lack of juggling caused the brain to remove the
synapses which led to a decrease is the size of brain parts responsible for
that behaviour.
