Effects of Environment on Physiological Processes

1. Effects of Environment on Physiological Processes

2. Neuroplasticity • The brain’s ability to reorganize itself in response to the environment throughout the lifespan.

3. Neuroplasticity • Experiences are powerful modifiers of the brain. • Experiences that affect neuroplasticity are: • Stimulating environments • Sex hormones • Diet • Genetics • Stress

4. Neuroplasticity • As behavior changes there must also be a corresponding change in the neural circuitry that produces behavior. • Neurogenisis- when new neurons are created in response to experience.

5. Research on Stimulating Environments • Kolb (1999) • Compared rats placed in enriched environments for three months to rats placed in standard cages. • Enriched environments led to higher performance on a variety of behvioral tasks.

6. Need to Tolerate Uncertainty • Can’t damage human brains in the lab. • Rats, mice, and primates are subjects in most neuroplasticity experiments. • We should not assume that human brains are plastic in the same ways as animals.

7. Studies that deal with neuroplasticity. • Small and Vorgan (2008)- iBrain • Hull and Vaid (2006)- localization and bilingulaism

8. Meet your iBrain • Digital Technology is not only changing the way we live and communicate, but is rapidly altering our brains. • As the brain evolves and shifts toward new technological skills, it drifts away from fundamental social skills.

9. Meet your iBrain • Small and Vorgan study • Participants • Three digitally naive people in 50s and 60s • Three digital-savvy volunteers from the same age and socioeconomic group.

10. Meet Your iBrain • Procedure • Participants were to perform an internet search task while receiving an fMRI. • Each group was also given a control task of reading information to be able to factor out other sources of brain stimulation. • After a baseline measurement was taken, both groups were asked to practice the search tasks for 1 hour a day for 5 days. • A second set of results was taken after 5 days.

11. Meet your iBrain • Results • The brains of computer savvy and computer naïve subjects showed no difference on the control task. • In the baseline measurements, the computer savvy subjects showed distinctly different neural patterns than the naïve subjects. • After five days, the naïve subjects now had the same neural patterns as the savvy subjects.

12. Concluding ideas about Neuroplasticity • Neuroplasticity occurs throughout the lifespan, though the brain is most plastic early in life. • Behavior changes occur AFTER neuroplasticy changes. • The brain can reorganize itself after injury. The brain spontaneously reorganizes itself right after injury so this is the best time for treatment.