What is Neuroplasticity?: Hope For Learning Disability Students?

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In my previous post called “Learning Disabilities: Basic Facts About Learning Disability” I mentioned that there was new research taking place that may bring new hope for learning disability children, called neuroplasticity. In this article I will introduce you to what neuroplasticity is and how it might help those with neurological impairments.

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Recently there has been some very interesting news regarding neuroplasticity. Scientists have discovered that the brain has an amazing ability to change and adapt. There are actual physiological changes that take place in the brain when it interacts with the environment. From birth to death, the brain constantly reorganizes itself to our changing needs. This is quite a remarkable feat and can vastly impact many present day medical conditions that result in minimal to severe neurological limitations. This may also have a very large impact in the learning disability area.

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When I worked in rehabilitation, many of the patients were recovering from stroke, a condition that causes physical limitations on one side of the body. Using various tactile stimulation techniques and proprioceptive methods, some patients were able to regain strength and motor control of their extremities. It was believed that with this stimulation, the brain will “rewire” itself and make new connections and pathways to the intact areas, by passing the damaged areas. We have actually seen miracles happen when the patient focused on tapping into their inner strength and ability, resulting in regained movement and strength.

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According to the article by Dr. Celeste Campbell, a neuropsychologist in the Polytrauma Program at the Washington, D.C. Veterans Administration Medical Center (https://www.brainline.org/author/celeste-campbell/qa/what-neuroplasticity), “We are now learning more about neurogenesis – the actual generation of new brain cells. Recent research has demonstrated that neurogenesis does, indeed continue into and throughout adult life, although only in specific areas of the brain. Researchers are exploring ways to identify those areas of the brain where new cells are developing, to discover how to promote or inhibit neurogenesis and to learn how new neurons may become part of the working brain.”

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Another article called Neuroplasticity: The 10 Fundamentals of Rewiring Your Brain (http://reset.me/story/neuroplasticity-the-10-fundamentals-of-rewiring-your-brain), they talk about “Dr. Michael Merzenich, a leading pioneer in brain plasticity research and co-founder of Posit Science, lists ten core principles that are necessary for the remodeling of your brain to take place.” The following are these ten core principles listed in this article:

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1. Change is mosty limited to those situations in which the brain is in the mood for it. So what this means is that you have to be alert, receptive, motivated, & focused in order for the brain to release the neurochemicals that are needed for brain change.

2. The harder you try, the more you’re motivated, the more alert you are, and the better (or worse) the potential outcome, the bigger the brain change.

3. What actually changes in the brain are the strengths of the connections of neurons that are engaged together, moment by moment, in time.

4. Learning – driven changes in connections increase cell to cell cooperation, which is crucial for increasing reliability.

5. The brain also strengthens its connections between teams of neurons representing separate moments of successive things that reliably occur in serial time.

6. Initial changes are temporary.

7. The brain is changed by internal mental rehearsal in the same ways and involving precisely the same processes that control changes achieved through interactions with the external world.

8. Memory guides and controls most learning.

9. Every movement of learning provides a moment of opportunity for the brain to stabilize – and reduce the disruptive power of – potentially interfering backgrounds or “noise.”

10. Brain plasticity is a two –way street; it is just as easy to generate negative changes as it is positive ones.

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So what does neuroplasticity have to do with learning disability? Well, as stated above, it was believed that the human brain could not regenerate new neural cells, so when one died, no new one would grow. But this old theory of the brain being unable to regenerate is no longer a relevant theory. Before we thought that our ability to develop new pathways decreased drastically after the age of 20 and that it became permanently fixed at around 40.

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Studies made of the brain through scanning technology found that new neural cells continue to generate throughout our life along with the development of new pathways in the brain. Even in elderly patients they found that measurable changes can occur disproving the old theory that thought this was impossible. But as Dr. Michael Merzenich stated in his “10 Fundamentals of Rewiring Your Brain”, these changes are not always easy but with concentrated focus and effort on the deficit area, there are possibilities that changes can occur.

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I think this is very exciting news because it will have such a significant impact on many areas of neurological and brain related impairments. Can you even imagine what the implications are with this new found medical and scientific research? Stroke patients regaining their motor and sensory skills, learning disability children and adults learning to rewire the way their brains process inputs to the brain and outputs to effectively interact with the environment, aphasic patients being able to talk again, and brain trauma individuals being able to regain lost function in their thinking, problem solving ability and physical limitations. This will help so many people who suffer from debilitating illness and give new hope to those who had none.

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“Neuroplasticity research showed that the brain changes its very structure
with each different activity it performs, perfecting its circuits
so it is better suited to the task at hand.”
-Naveen Jain

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As long as there is hope and possibilities and as long as science continues to explore all avenues to change the brain, we can believe that there might be a way to lessen the limitations of those suffering from learning disability. We truly have more potential to use our brain to a fuller capacity than we think. In time I know there will be great strides made. Here’s to the future of possibilities!

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