PS263 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Encephalitis, Occipital Lobe, Temporal Lobe
Document Summary
Immature neurons transplanted develop properties characteristic of their new location. Neurons transplanted at later stage develop some new properties while retaining some old ones. About 6% of dendritic spines appear or disappear within a month, this means a turnover of synapses which relates to learning. A stimulating environment enhances sprouting of axons and dendrites. Much enhancement produced by environment is due to physical activity which enhances both cognitive processes and brain anatomy. Far transfer: teaching one thing and hoping students get smarter in other ways too, doesn"t really work. Near transfer: training on one task and finding improvement on a similar task. Blind people improve their attention to touch and sound based on practice. This has to do with needed greater touch sensitivity, especially with braille reading. In blind people touch info activates occipital cortex which is ordinarily devoted to vision alone. Thus blind people, unlike sighted people, use occipital cortex to help identify what they feel.
