Reprogramming the Cerebral Cortex: Plasticity following central and peripheral lesions
Stephen Lomber and Jos Eggermont
Abstract
The brain has a remarkable ability to adapt in the event of damage — in many cases shifting responsibility for specific cognitive functions to other non-damaged brain regions. This ‘plasticity’ can be crucial in aiding recovery from stroke, trauma, and peripheral damage such as eye or ear damage. Over the past thirty years our view of cortical plasticity has evolved greatly. Early studies suggested that changes to cortical function due to peripheral lesions could only occur during development and that these plastic changes were specific to a particular temporal window or ‘critical period’. Ove ... More
The brain has a remarkable ability to adapt in the event of damage — in many cases shifting responsibility for specific cognitive functions to other non-damaged brain regions. This ‘plasticity’ can be crucial in aiding recovery from stroke, trauma, and peripheral damage such as eye or ear damage. Over the past thirty years our view of cortical plasticity has evolved greatly. Early studies suggested that changes to cortical function due to peripheral lesions could only occur during development and that these plastic changes were specific to a particular temporal window or ‘critical period’. Over time, it has been demonstrated that cortical modifications as a consequence of either peripheral or central lesions can induce adaptive, or beneficial, changes in cortical function in an effort to preserve or enhance function. More recently, studies have identified that many of these adaptive changes, once thought only possible in the developing brain, are also possible in the mature or developed brain. At present, many laboratories are defining the beneficial capabilities of cerebral cortex plasticity, upon which many proactive and therapeutic strategies may be developed in order to maximise the ‘reprogramming’ capabilities of the cerebrum. This book describes these exciting studies and examines adaptive cortical plasticity in a variety of systems (visual, auditory, somatomotor, cross-modal, language, and cognition).
Keywords:
brain damage,
cognitive functions,
non-damaged brain regions,
plasticity,
stroke,
trauma,
peripheral damage,
peripheral lesions,
developed brain,
cerebrum
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2006 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198528999 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2009 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198528999.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Stephen Lomber, editor
Associate Professor of Neuroscience & Psychology, Department of Physiology & Pharamcology, Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
Jos Eggermont, editor
Campbell McLaurin Chair for Hearing Deficiencies, Department of Phyiology and Biophysics, Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Canada
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