Cortical plasticity and rehabilitation

doi:10.1016/S0079-6123(06)57007-4

Progress in Brain Research

Volume 157, 2006, Pages 111-122, 388-389

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6123(06)57007-4 Get rights and content

Abstract

The brain is constantly adapting to environmental and endogenous changes (including injury) that occur at every stage of life. The mechanisms that regulate neural plasticity have been refined over millions of years. Motivation and sensory experience directly shape the rewiring that makes learning and neurological recovery possible. Guiding neural reorganization in a manner that facilitates recovery of function is a primary goal of neurological rehabilitation. As the rules that govern neural plasticity become better understood, it will be possible to manipulate the sensory and motor experience of patients to induce specific forms of plasticity. This review summarizes our current knowledge regarding factors that regulate cortical plasticity, illustrates specific forms of reorganization induced by control of each factor, and suggests how to exploit these factors for clinical benefit.

Section snippets

Factors that regulate plasticity

Plasticity is the remarkable ability of developing, adult, and aging brains to adapt to a changing world. This potential is revealed whenever an organism must meet a new environmental demand or recover from nervous system damage. Plasticity occurs in sensory and motor systems following deprivation of input or overstimulation, increased or decreased usage, learning of new skills, and injury. These experience-dependent changes can be as subtle as a change in neuronal excitability (Engineer et

Influence of background stimuli on plasticity

Psychologists and psychophysicists have known for decades that unattended background stimuli (context) influence perceptual learning. Studies of sensory plasticity have typically been conducted in environments stripped of context, by using soundproof booths or gray backgrounds. Recent experiments in more naturalistic and complex settings have shown that context also influences plasticity.

In many cases, adding complex backgrounds actually improves learning. Contrast discrimination learning, for

Sensory input paired with controlled release of neuromodulators

Pairing electrical activation of the cholinergic NB with different sounds generates changes in cortical map and RF properties in rats that closely parallel the different forms of plasticity resulting from operant training in monkeys. For example, temporally modulated stimuli tend to increase RF size, while stimuli that activate different regions of the receptor surface tend to decrease RF size (Kilgard et al., 2002). While the differential plasticity observed in operant studies could be

Clinical conclusions

It was proposed two decades ago that cortical reorganization after injury may be the neural substrate for recovery of function after brain damage (Jenkins and Merzenich, 1987). More recent studies in primates have shown that rehabilitative training can direct reorganization to benefit recovery (Nudo et al., 1996). There is no longer a doubt that reorganization after brain lesions is shaped by the sensorimotor experiences in the weeks to months following injury. Hence it is important to

Acknowledgments

We thank Cherie Percaccio, Amanda Puckett, Vikram Jakkamsetti, Dr. Owen Floddy and Dr. Pritesh Pandya for insightful comments and review of the manuscript. This work was supported by grants from the National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, the James S. McDonnell Foundation, and Cure Autism Now.

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These temporally restricted increases suggest that neuromodulatory release supports learning. Attention is known to facilitate behaviorally specific plasticity and learning (Moucha and Kilgard, 2006). Neuromodulatory systems are involved in attention, as disruption of the cholinergic or the noradrenergic systems impairs attentional processing (Muir et al., 1993, 1994).
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We demonstrated that NB-tone pairing also resulted in dramatic map reorganization in the secondary auditory cortex (Puckett et al., 2007). By pairing more complex stimuli with NB stimulation, we can enhance neural sensitivity, temporal processing, and frequency selectivity of A1 neurons (Kilgard and Merzenich, 1998b, 2002; Kilgard et al., 2001, 2002; Pandya et al., 2005; Moucha et al., 2005). For example, pairing NB stimulation with tones of multiple frequencies greatly improved frequency selectivity of A1 neurons (Kilgard et al., 2001).
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Cortical plasticity and rehabilitation

Abstract

Section snippets

Factors that regulate plasticity

Influence of background stimuli on plasticity

Sensory input paired with controlled release of neuromodulators

Clinical conclusions

Acknowledgments

Brain Res.

Brain Res.

Neuron

Neuron

Neuroscience

Neuron

Behav. Brain Res.

Prog. Brain Res.

Neuron

Brain Res.

Hear. Res.

Neuron

Exp. Neurol.

Trends Neurosci.

Neurobiol. Learn Mem.

Context-enabled learning in the human visual system

Nature

Attentional control of early perceptual learning

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA

Reorganization of somatosensory area 3b representations in adult owl monkeys after digital syndactyly

J. Neurophysiol.

Progressive degradation and subsequent refinement of acoustic representations in the adult auditory cortex

J. Neurosci.

Enriched rehabilitative training promotes improved forelimb motor function and enhanced dendritic growth after focal ischemic injury

J. Neurosci.

Induction of long-term receptive field plasticity in the auditory cortex of the waking guinea pig by stimulation of the nucleus basalis

Behav. Neurosci.

Locus coeruleus activation modulates firing rate and temporal organization of odour-induced single-cell responses in rat piriform cortex

Eur. J. Neurosci.

D-amphetamine boosts language learning independent of its cardiovascular and motor arousing effects

Neuropsychopharmacology

Cortical plasticity: from synapses to maps

Annu. Rev. Neurosci.

Environmental noise retards auditory cortical development

Science

Experience-dependent plasticity in adult rat barrel cortex

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA

Basal forebrain stimulation induces discriminative receptive field plasticity in the auditory cortex

Behav. Neurosci.

Pharmacological modulation of perceptual learning and associated cortical reorganization

Science

Neural substrates of memory: from synapse to system

J. Neurobiol.

Uber das Gedachtnis. Untersuchungen zur Experimentellen Psychologie

Increased cortical representation of the fingers of the left hand in string players

Science

Environmental enrichment improves response strength, threshold, selectivity, and latency of auditory cortex neurons

J. Neurophysiol.

Amphetamine, haloperidol, and experience interact to affect rate of recovery after motor cortex injury

Science

Protein phosphatase 1 is a molecular constraint on learning and memory

Nature

Experience-dependent depression of vibrissae responses in adolescent rat barrel cortex

Eur. J. Neurosci.

Associative pairing of tactile stimulation induces somatosensory cortical reorganization in rats and humans

Neuroreport.

Pharmacological induction of use-dependent receptive field modifications in the visual cortex

Science

Drivers of brain plasticity

Curr. Opin. Neurol.

Functional reorganization of primary somatosensory cortex in adult owl monkeys after behaviorally controlled tactile stimulation

J. Neurophysiol.