Brain

Development
and Plasticity
SP222
  Few stages of development:

Growth and 1. Proliferation

2. Migration
Development of 3. Differentiation
Neurons 4. Myelination
5. Synaptogenesis
  Proliferation is the stage of production of new cells
 Early in development, the cells begin to divide,
becoming either stem cells, or neurons and glia that
Proliferation begin to move to other locations
 The main difference between a human brain and the
brain of a chimpanzee is that human brains continue to
proliferate for much longer
  Cells that have differentiated into neurons and glia begin
to migrate
 Some neurons migrate faster than others, while some
neurons don’t reach their final destination until
adulthood

Migration  Chemicals known as immunoglobulins and chemokines

guide neuron migration
 Deficit in these two leads to impaired migration,
decreased brain size, decreased axon growth, and mental
retardation
 Excesses of immunoglobulin can lead to schizhophrenia
  Primitive neurons look like any other cell
 As neurons develop, they differentiate – the axon and
dendrites form
 The axon of a neuron grows first
Differentiation  Some neurons grow axons and ‘tows’ the axon along as
it moves
 Some neurons move first, then grow axons towards their
intended targets
  The process by which glia produce the insulating fatty
sheaths that accelerate transmission in many vertebrate
axons

Myelination  Myelin forms first in the spinal cord, then the hindbrain,
midbrain, and forebrain
 Myelination is a slow process, and continues gradually
for decades
  ‘Genesis’ means the beginning
 Synaptogenesis – the beginnings of synapses
 Final stage where synapses form between neurons
 Begins before birth, and continues throughout life
Synaptogenesis  Neurons continually develop new synapses and discard old,
unused ones
 Synaptogenesis slows down in elderly people
 Hence why keeping the brain active in old age is important
to continue synaptogenesis
  Most of the brain’s neurons are formed early in life – the
brain does not normally form new neurons later in life
 Only neurons found to be consistently new is the olfactory
neurons, which die only after 90 days and need to be
renewed
 Stem cells in the nose remain immature throughout life –
New Neurons these immature stem cells can then grow into new olfactory
neurons

Later In Life  Hippocampal neurons have also been found to be

renewable
 Supply of new neurons in the hippocampus keeps it
‘young’, which helps us learn continually and form new
memories
 So with every year that we live, we have less and less
neurons if they die
  How do axons from neurons know where to grow and
where to attach?
 Sperry (1943) theorized that it is through chemical
pathfinding – axons grow in specific direction based on
Pathfinding by chemicals that are released by the corresponding organs
 Tested this on newts by cutting their optic nerves, and then
axons rotating their eyes to see if their optic nerves would grow
back to the original places even though the eye was rotated
 The newt’s optic nerve did grow back to the original
places, but because the eyes were rotated, the newts saw up
as down, and left as right.
  The body always has the exact amount of neurons and
axons linked to a particular muscle or organ for it to
work – how does the body do this so accurately?
 The body produces far more neurons than is needed, and
they all form axons to different muscles and organs
Neuronal  These muscles that need the neurons then release a
protein called nerve growth factor (NGF), that keeps the
survival neurons alive
 Neurons that do not receive enough NGF ‘commit
suicide’ through apoptosis (they break themselves down)
 Neurons seem to be the OG suicidals – naturally born to
kill themselves if they don’t receive affirmation from
others
  It is important that enough neurons survive to
successfully establish connections
 If any chemicals are introduced that disrupts this process,
a person can be severely damaged
 This is why babies in the womb are so vulnerable to small
Neuronal things like alcohol, drugs, or even a fever – it can affect
neuronal survivability and cause their brains to be impaired
fragility  Fetal Alcohol Syndrome – when mothers drink too much
alcohol during pregnancy
 Alcohol suppresses the release of glutamate (an excitatory
neurotransmitter) and enhances GABA (an inhibitory
neurotransmitter), causing cells to release less NGF and
dying as a result
  Neurons in different parts of the brain differ from each
other in their shapes and chemical components
 Immature neurons that are experimentally transplanted
into different areas of the brain than they were originally
from actually develop into similar neurons from that part
of the brain
Differentiation of  “Older neurons” that were already developed, and then
the cortex transplanted into a new area of the brain also develop
similar structures to it’s new part, but retains it’s older
structures as well
 E.g if a Malaysian kid migrates to Canada at 2 years old,
he/she will speak like a Canadian. If a Malaysian teenager
migrates to Canada, he/she can speak like a Canadian, but
still have a Malaysian accent as well
  Axons and dendrites continually modify themselves
throughout life
 On average, the thickness of the cerebral cortex declines
with age, starting at 30 and accelerating in later years
Fine-tuning  Neurons become less active partly due to lower blood
flow
and experience  Individuals who remain mentally active both mentally
and physically can drastically reduce the rate at which
their brain volume decreases
 You need both mental and physical exercise – playing
chess while working out?
Brain Adaptations

Do blind people hear and feel things better

than normal people?
  When one area of the brain is damaged and can no
longer perform its normal function, it can increase
attention to other senses
Tests on blind individuals found that their occipital
Brain

cortex (the vision part of the brain) was actually involved
in their touch sensations
Adaptations  This shows that the brain is ‘smart’ enough to utilize
areas of the brain that are not being normally used to
increase other senses in order to make up for one missing
sense
  Can we manually ‘train’ our brains?
 Musicians who practice > 4 hours a day actually have
stronger responses in their temporal cortex than normal
individuals
Brain  Subcortical regions in the temporal lobe also respond
faster and more vigorously to speech sounds in
Adaptations musicians
 Musicians seem to be able to differentiate Chinese tones
better than non-musicians who are learning the language
 Grey matter in music/sound-focused regions of the brain
was also thicker in musicians than non-musicians
  Not all brain adaptations can be good
 Musicians who practice for too long can actually ‘over-
develop’ certain regions in the brain
When brain  Guitarists who practice too much actually causes the areas
in the brain that control fine motor movement (moving
adaptations go individual fingers) to be ‘overdeveloped’ resulting in the
moving of one finger stimulating the entire region of the
wrong hand, thus moving other fingers as well
 Known as ‘musician’s cramp’, this can end a musician’s
career, since they are less able to move their fingers
independently
  The fact that our brains can adapt and change structures
shows that it is ‘plastic’ – changeable
Brain plasticity  Brains that are damaged can actually recover – axons
that are severed can be regrown to a certain extent
after brain  Cognitive functions that have been lost after accidents

damage have been shown to recover over time, although

sometimes not fully
  How to tell if someone is suffering from a stroke:
1. Numbness or weakness in the face, arm, or leg,
especially on one side of the body

Stroke and 2. Sudden confusion, trouble speaking, or difficulty

understanding speech
brain damage 3. Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
4. Sudden weakness, dizziness, loss of balance, or loss of
coordination
Stroke
Symptoms
  Stroke damages the brain by causing temporary loss of
blood flow to the brain
 Two types of stroke:
 Ischemia (blood clot or blocked artery)
Hemorrhage (bleeding in the brain from a ruptured artery)
Stroke and


 Both types of stroke damage the brain because it causes

brain damage neuronal death, which if too severe can lead to
irreparable brain damage
 Treatments of stroke:
 Drug called tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) breaks up
blood clots
 Must be administered within 3 hours after a stroke
  While a destroyed cell body (soma) cannot be replaced,
destroyed axons can be regrown
 In mammals, axons regrow back only a millimeter or two
Axon regrowth  Hence why spinal cord injury normally leads to permanent
paralysis
after stroke  In fishes, axons can regrow entirely
 Scientists are working on a way to encourage axons in
mammals to regrow back longer, in order to provide
better recovery from strokes
  ‘Phantom limbs’ is a condition where someone feels a
limb that’s no longer there
 E.g. a soldier who lost a leg can still ‘feel’ it
Cortex  Result of cortex reorganization

reorganization  While the leg is now gone, the cortex that is specialized to
that leg is still functioning
and phantom  This cortex eventually comes to control other areas of the
body (e.g. genitals)
limbs  But because it is specialized for the leg, when stimulus is
placed on the genitals, the brain interprets it as the ‘leg’
that’s supposed to be there, even though there is no more
leg