Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Lillard, Angeline S.
• Erisir, Alev

Titel

Old dogs learning new tricks: Neuroplasticity beyond the juvenile period

Ist Teil von

• Developmental review, 2011-12, Vol.31 (4), p.207-239

Ort / Verlag

United States: Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2011

Quelle

ERIC

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• ► Hard neuroplastic change occurs across the lifespan. ► Three principles of neuroplasticity are supported by the evidence reviewed here: ► Earlier and later neuroplastic changes differ more in degree than type. ► The types of experiences leading to neuroplastic change narrow with age. ► Developmental differences in neuro-architecture and -environment underlie this. Twenty years ago, the prevalent view in Psychology was that although learning and the formation of new memories are lifelong occurrences, the neural changes associated with these events were all in the existing receptors. No new neural hardware, from synapses to neurons, was thought to appear after a protracted period early in life. In the past 20 years, another view has supplanted this one, showing that although the juvenile period is especially suited to neuroplastic adaptation, there is hard neuroplastic change later in life as well. We review a selection of evidence for this view from both animal and human models, showing how it reflects three principles of neuroplasticity: (1) earlier and later experience-induced changes to neuroarchitecture differ in degree more so than in type; (2) the types of experiences that lead to neuroplastic change narrow with age; and (3) differences in the amenability of neural circuitry to change result from basic differences in neuroarchitecture and neuroenvironment in different phases of development.