I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Organs Zone. It has scientists studying health and disease in various parts  of our bodies. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
That sounds like a question for Emma! I’m off to enrich the environment of my house in the hopes that it will make us all smarter now…..
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Well, I think Emma is definitely the brain specialist, but I worked on mouse with a neurological disorder when i lived in America!
Brain plasticity means the way that the brain can form new connections. A long time ago, scientists thought that the brain wasn’t able to make new connections but we now know that new connections are able to be formed, and can be in response to changes in behaviour, environment, or even after a head injury or stroke. And is important for brain development as a kid, and for learning and memory!
In mice, we are able to do lots of behavioral tests which we now know are similar to human behaviour. For example, we can put them into mazes or other boxes which we know are reliable to test their anxiety or how nervous they are, and we can test their motor activity, or how well they run by putting them on a special running wheel.
If you alter their environment, and then test them, you can look at if the environment is have a impact on brain plasticity,
I am not too sure about in humans, but I have a friend who did her phd ohumans, and she was looking at brain connections and arm movements using a technique called. Trainscranial magnetic stimulation, which means that she used a magnet in the top of someone’s head to excite and activate the brain cells just under the skull that make the arm move. It’s not dangerous, and can tell us a lot about brain plasticity.
Hope this all helps 🙂
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Brain plasticity is also referred to as ‘neuÂroÂplasÂticÂity’ the brain’s abilÂity to change and reorÂgaÂnise itself by creating new conÂnecÂtions between brain cells (neurons).
For a long time it was thought that the connection between neurons were fixed and could not be altered, although within the last few decades neuroscientists who have been studying this in greater detail and have found a remarkable capacity/potential for your brain to adapt and change according to the environment.
The brain undergoes neuroplastic changes during development (when the immature or fetal brain is still developing and organising itself). It also does this to adapt to changes if the brain is injured (eg. after a stroke, where patients have to re-learn how to walk or write) and most importantly throughout your life as you learn something new (eg. language, sport or other skill).
There are different ways to measure how the environment affects your brain using noninvasive brain-imaging methods such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which works by mapping changes in local blood flow to specific areas of the brain that are active when you are doing something (eg. looking at something which creates an emotional response) and allows scientists to study the connections linking regions, or to assess structural changes due to injury or learning.
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Thanks Hannah and Mel! Neuroplasticity is pretty incredible.
I raise my mice in enriched environments with toys, ladders, ropes and running wheels to interact with. These mice are smarter in mazes and have increased mood. I look inside their brains for markers of brain plasticity. Some of these markers include trophic factors that can help brain cells to branch out and make new connections. I have found new brain cells that are born during the time my mice were playing in their exciting environments. Other markers I look for are special genes that help make new proteins to allow brain cells to fire more efficiently. It is difficult to look at these markers in humans because we can’t look at brain tissue from alive people which is why we use mice. If we can find brain plasticity markers that can help injured brains we might be able to develop new drugs to help people get better more quickly. For now, we know that increased mental and physical exercise can encourage your brain to be healthier and happier. The message is for all of us to get on a bike and do a challenging brain puzzle.
If your school allows you, there are some great brain challenges on this website https://www.positscience.com/
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Emma and Hannah gave great answers. Can’t think of anything more that needs to be added 🙂
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