Your Brain Once Had a Superpower. Could You Get It Back?

TL;DR

Adults may be able to regain some youthful brain plasticity, but researchers have not yet established a safe way to restore it in humans. Adult brains remain capable of learning and healing, and therapies can help some adults with amblyopia. Reducing GABA activity increased visual-cortex plasticity in adult rats, but related chemicals may cause seizures. Read on to understand critical periods, amblyopia treatment, and the promise and risks of reopening brain plasticity.

Transcript

This episode of SciShow is brought to you by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Teacher Innovator Institute. If you’re a 5th- through 8th-grade teacher in the US, you can visit s.si.edu/tii to learn more about the program and fill out the application. [♪ INTRO] When you think of a young kid, their incredible brainpower probably isn’t t... Read More

Key Insights

• 👻 Kids' brains have high neural plasticity, allowing for faster adaptation and learning.
• ⌛ The critical period is a time of heightened plasticity when certain skills are more easily developed.
• 🧠 Amblyopia, a vision impairment, can be treated during the critical period by leveraging brain plasticity.
• 😑 Brain plasticity is still present in adults, but to a lesser extent than in children.
• 🧠 Research is ongoing to find ways to increase brain plasticity in adults, which could have implications for treating vision impairments and brain injuries.
• 🖐️ Inhibitory circuits and chemicals like GABA play a role in the development of plasticity and critical periods.
• 🧠 Some methods, like reducing GABA activity, have shown promising results in increasing brain plasticity in animal studies.

Questions & Answers

Q: Could adults regain the brain plasticity they had as children?

Possibly, but the research described has not yet produced a safe treatment for humans. Experiments increased plasticity in adult rodents by reducing inhibition, while scientists continue exploring approaches that do not interfere with GABA.

Q: Why are children’s brains more adaptable than adults’ brains?

Children’s brains have high neural plasticity, meaning they can rewire themselves especially easily. As brains develop, inhibitory circuits emerge that reduce communication between neurons, making this rewiring less effortless in adults.

Q: What is a critical period in brain development?

A critical period is a time of high plasticity when a child’s brain is especially responsive to outside influences. Different brain regions develop at different times, so critical periods vary by skill, and some skills become harder or even impossible to acquire afterward.

Q: Do adult brains still have neural plasticity?

Yes, adult brains retain some plasticity. Learning can form or fine-tune neural connections, grow neurons that carry signals, and strengthen or change the number of connections between neurons, though these changes happen more easily in children.

Q: What is amblyopia, and how does brain plasticity contribute to it?

Amblyopia is vision loss or impairment in one eye driven by the brain. When one eye is weaker, a child’s adaptable visual cortex may begin ignoring its signals and relying on the stronger eye instead.

Q: How can an eyepatch treat amblyopia?

A doctor may place an eyepatch over the stronger eye, forcing the brain to use signals from the weaker one. The method is straightforward during the visual critical period, and at least one study found that it also worked for some people in their late teens.

Q: Can amblyopia be treated after childhood?

Yes, the transcript says eyepatch treatment and other therapies have helped adults with amblyopia. This challenges the earlier belief that treatment was ineffective after roughly six to eight years old and suggests that the adult visual cortex retains some plasticity.

Q: How did reducing GABA affect brain plasticity in adult rats?

In a 2010 experiment, researchers gave four visually deprived rats a drug that reduced GABA activity in their visual cortices and gave four others saline. The treated rats’ brains adapted and favored the stronger eye, suggesting increased plasticity, but chemicals that reduce GABA may also cause seizures.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Kids' brains have high neural plasticity, allowing them to adapt and learn faster than adults.

• The critical period is a time of high plasticity where a child's brain is highly responsive to outside influences.

• Vision impairments, like amblyopia, can be treated during the critical period by using methods that leverage brain plasticity.