Effects of Environment on Physiological Processes环境对生理过程的影响.pptVIP

Effects of Environment on Physiological Processes Neuroplasticity The brain’s ability to reorganize itself in response to the environment throughout the lifespan. Neuroplasticity Experiences are powerful modifiers of the brain. Neuroplasticity As behavior changes there must also be a corresponding change in the neural circuitry that produces behavior. 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. Need to Tolerate Uncertainty Can’t damage human brains in the lab. Rats, mice, and primates are subjects in most neuroplasticity experiments. Studies that deal with neuroplasticity. Small and Vorgan (2008)- iBrain Hull and Vaid (2006)- localization and bilingulaism Meet your iBrain Digital Technology is not only changing the way we live and communicate, but is rapidly altering our brains. 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. 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. Meet your iBrain Results The brains of computer savvy and computer na?ve subjects showed no difference on the control task. In the baseline measurements, the computer savvy subjects showed distinctly different neural patterns than the na?ve subjects. After five days, the na?ve subjects now had the same neural patterns as the savvy subjects. Concluding ideas about Neuroplasticity Neuroplasticity occurs throughout the lifespan, thoug