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Related Concept Videos

Neuroplasticity01:01

Neuroplasticity

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Neuroplasticity reflects the brain's remarkable capacity to adapt and evolve, responding dynamically to learning, experiences, or injury by reorganizing its neural circuitry. This reorganization involves creating new neural connections and refining old ones through a series of biological processes that contribute to the brain's lifelong development and adaptability.
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Long-term Potentiation01:25

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Long-term potentiation, or LTP, is one of the ways by which synaptic plasticity—changes in the strength of chemical synapses—can occur in the brain. LTP is the process of synaptic strengthening that occurs over time between pre and postsynaptic neuronal connections. The synaptic strengthening of LTP works in opposition to the synaptic weakening of long-term depression (LTD) and together are the main mechanisms that underlie learning and memory.
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Natural selection, a fundamental concept in evolutionary biology, is the mechanism by which evolution is driven, favoring organisms that are best adapted to their environments. This process enhances their chances of survival and reproduction. Adaptation, a key outcome of this process, involves genetic modifications that optimize an organism's functionality under specific environmental challenges, such as extreme cold or thinner air at high altitudes.
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Plasticity is the property where an object loses its elasticity and undergoes irreversible deformation, even after the deformation forces are eliminated. If a material deforms irreversibly without increasing stress or load, then this is called ideal plasticity. For example, when a force is applied to an aluminum rod, it changes its shape, but it does not return to its original shape once the force is removed. Plastic deformation or ductility is thus a permanent deformation or change in the...
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Organisms that are well-adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. However, natural selection does not lead to perfectly adapted organisms. Several factors constrain natural selection.
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Allocating structure to function: the strong links between neuroplasticity and natural selection.

Michael L Anderson1, Barbara L Finlay2

  • 1Department of Psychology, Franklin & Marshall College Lancaster, PA, USA ; Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, University of Maryland College Park, MD, USA.

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
|January 17, 2014
PubMed
Summary

Brain evolution favors flexible neural systems over rigid modules. Genes and neural structures are reused across functions, promoting both stability and adaptability for inherited behaviors.

Keywords:
cortexevo-devomodularityneural re-usevisual system

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Developmental Biology

Background:

  • The inheritance of species-typical behaviors and their neural underpinnings is a key question in brain evolution.
  • The concept of brain modularity posits that natural selection acts on dedicated neural subsystems, leading to genetically specified modules where neuron number and connectivity are linked.
  • However, evidence suggests neural elements are reused across multiple functions, a phenomenon observed in neuromodulation, neuroplasticity, and response to damage.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To challenge the strict modularity hypothesis in brain evolution.
  • To propose that natural selection preserves behavioral functions through distributed and overlapping neural architectures.
  • To explore the interplay of evolutionary and developmental mechanisms in shaping brain structure, emphasizing robustness and evolvability.

Main Methods:

  • Review of evidence from allometric, developmental, comparative, systems-physiological, neuroimaging, and neurological studies.
  • Conceptual analysis integrating principles of genetics (pleiotropy) with neural systems.
  • Application of the concepts of robustness and evolvability to brain evolution and development (evo-devo).

Main Results:

  • Evidence indicates that brain elements are not strictly dedicated but are reused across various functional systems.
  • Natural selection likely preserves behavioral functions by allowing them to co-locate with other functions in variable neural arrangements.
  • The evolution of the brain involves distributed and overlapping functional architectures, not solely isolated modules.

Conclusions:

  • The brain's functional architecture is shaped by evolutionary and developmental processes that favor both robustness and evolvability.
  • Neural reuse and distributed processing are critical mechanisms in brain evolution, analogous to pleiotropy in genetics.
  • Understanding brain evolution requires moving beyond strict modularity to appreciate the dynamic and flexible nature of neural organization.