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Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity

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.

Long-term Potentiation

Long-term Potentiation

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.
Hebbian LTP
LTP can occur when...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 28, 2025

Assessment of Ultrastructural Neuroplasticity Parameters After In Utero Transduction of the Developing Mouse Brain and Spinal Cord

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Published on: February 26, 2019

Evolution of Plasticity in Brain Morphology.

Caleb J Axelrod¹, Helen Stec¹, Stephanie M Tran¹

¹Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.

Brain, Behavior and Evolution

|February 13, 2025

Summary

Brain morphology plasticity is influenced by environmental factors and can evolve. This review explores how selection acts on brain plasticity and proposes a framework for future research on its evolution.

Keywords:

Brain morphology Brain size Evolution Phenotypic plasticity

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Last Updated: May 28, 2025

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Published on: February 26, 2019

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Published on: September 20, 2024

Area of Science:

Evolutionary biology
Neuroscience
Animal behavior

Background:

Brain morphology is crucial for animal performance and exhibits phenotypic plasticity.
Phenotypic plasticity is itself an evolvable trait subject to natural selection.

Purpose of the Study:

To review environmental factors inducing brain morphology plasticity across taxa.
To propose a framework for studying the evolution of brain morphology plasticity.
To outline methods for testing hypotheses on the evolution of brain plasticity.

Main Methods:

Literature review of studies on environmental influences on brain morphology.
Development of a theoretical framework for evolutionary selection on plasticity.
Identification of potential experimental approaches for hypothesis testing.

Main Results:

Environmental cues significantly impact brain morphology plasticity in diverse animal groups.
Four distinct patterns of selection potentially driving the evolution of brain plasticity are hypothesized.
The review highlights a gap in empirical research on the evolution of brain morphology plasticity.

Conclusions:

Understanding the evolution of brain morphology plasticity requires integrating environmental, selective, and developmental perspectives.
Further research is needed to empirically test proposed evolutionary mechanisms.
This framework provides a roadmap for advancing the field of neuroplasticity evolution.