BRAIN PLASTICITY - AN OVERVIEW
Brain Plasticity:
Our brain is very tricky! It has immense capacity to learn many things, and it keeps learning, experiencing, changing, and adapting to it. And this process is endless. This ability of the brain to change and adapt to an experience is called Brain plasticity or Neuroplasticity.
Plasticity means the brain's flexibility, defined as being ‘easily influenced, trained, or controlled’. ‘Neuro’ refers to neurons – the nerve cells that make up the entire nervous system. Thus, neuroplasticity means when nerve cells change or adjust.
Unlike a computer, the brain processes sensory as well as motor signals in parallel. It has many neural pathways, and they can easily replicate each other’s function; thus correcting a potential or temporary loss of function by re-routing signals along different pathways.
Types of Brain Plasticity: