EXPLAIN NEURAL PRUNING WITH REFERENCE TO ONE STUDY

DRAGANSKI: aim

To prove the theory of neural pruning by finding out whether the human brain can change structure in response to environmental demands

DRAGANSKI: procedure

-FIRST, each participant had an MRI scan at the beginning of the study in order to see the structure of the brain prior to the experiment -Following this, the participants were randomly allocated to one of two conditions: 1: THEY WERE ASKED TO LEARN A JUGGLING ROUTINE and to practice it daily until they had mastered it -When they mastered it they had a second MRI -Then they were told not to juggle anymore and three months after they had a third MRI 2: Served as a control group

INTRODUCTION

-Neural pruning/ synaptic pruning is a natural process in which the brain eliminates extra synapses as a result of the removal of dendritic branches -Pruning can be the result of being the brain's way of removing connections or synapses within it when it is no longer needed, to make room for learning new complex information in the future -BUT! it can also be because of other primary reasons like neuron cell death or hormones like cortisol -NONTHELESS, neural pruning's exact mechanism is still not fully understood to this day -THIS CAN BE SEEN IN A STUDY BY DRAGANSKI WHO LOOKED AT JUGGLERS

DRAGANSKI: results

-using voxel based morphometry, the researchers measured the density of the grey matter in the brains of jugglers and non jugglers -The jugglers showed a significantly larger amount of grey matter in the mid temporal area in both hemispheres (this area was associated with visual memory) -Three months later following the complete stop of juggling, the amount of grey matter in these parts of the brain decreased CONCLUSIVELY: Neuroplasticity and neural pruning are shown, because neural networks were created when a new skill was being learned and neural pruning happened when the information wasn't necessary anymore so those neurons were no longer activated, thus the synapses were eliminated as the amount of dendritic branches were removed from the lack of using it so it does that to make room for more useful information

DRAGANSKI: sample

24 non jugglers