Neuroplasticity: What Your Brain Can Do for You
Have you ever wondered how your brain learns new information, tackles challenges, or recovers from injury? The answer lies in neuroplasticity—a concept where our brains reshape themselves through our thoughts and actions. This dynamic process allows for constant adaptation in brain activity based on our experiences, illustrating the brain's incredible ability to evolve and recover. Understanding neuroplasticity and brain function is crucial for comprehending how psychotherapy can effectively modify behaviour and cognition.
Neuroplasticity throughout childhood development and adulthood
Children, like sponges absorbing new information and experiences from the world around them, undergo significant brain development, making them highly receptive to the effects of neuroplasticity. But our ability to adapt doesn’t stop in adulthood. While brain development is most vigorous during childhood, it remains susceptible to change throughout our lifetime. Many psychologists emphasize maintaining cognitive functioning through formal education, environmental stimulation, and physical activity to counter the effects of aging (Toricelli et al. 2021). This has the potential for lifelong learning and personal growth, as our brains can adapt and develop in response to new experiences and challenges at any age.
Traumatic Brain Injury
A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one instance where the brain can undergo serious change, possibly impairing cognitive function in a brain region. Following a TBI, the brain works to restructure and compensate through supporting brain structures (Medow, 2010). Ian Waterman is a prominent figure in psychology who exemplifies this phenomenon. A viral illness affecting his central nervous system left him without proprioception, the ability to sense movement and body position from the neck down. Something as simple as scratching his nose became nearly impossible without immense thought and effort. To overcome this discrepancy, he had to rely on his vision to inform his body position. Through constant practice and adaptation, Ian Waterman’s brain underwent rewiring of his neural pathways to compensate for the lack of proprioceptive feedback, which allowed him to regain complete independence. (Gallego, 2017).
Cognitive Remediation
Another pertinent example demonstrating the brain's ability to adapt to cognitive impairment is seen in therapeutic interventions for schizophrenia patients. A study conducted in 2015 by Puskar et al. aimed to explore the impact that cognitive remediation, physical activity, and sleep can have on a patient’s ability to promote change in functional neuroanatomy (neuroplasticity) and improve cognitive function. Schizophrenia is typically accompanied by a deficit in the patient’s working memory, attention span, verbal learning, language and executive functions and can seriously impact their quality of life. Cognitive remediation, for instance, utilizes brain exercises such as metacognitive training (MCT) and therapeutic interventions to mitigate impairment to executive function. MCT aims to modify dysfunctional thinking patterns in schizophrenic patients by enhancing their awareness of their thought processes and stating their intentions when making decisions and completing tasks. During this intervention, Puskar et al. saw a positive effect on cognitive function and suggested new cognitive pathways were formed to support this change. This highlights the importance of targeting cognition as well as behaviour during therapeutic intervention to optimize treatment efficacy and promote long-term recovery. Although this study focused on rehabilitation in schizophrenia patients, it can be generalized to other therapeutic interventions, such as psychoeducation, and group therapy which are commonly used to treat other mental disorders.
Application to psychotherapy
How can this be used in therapy to change thoughts and actions? Neuroplasticity plays a significant part in therapeutic practice as the goal is to make lasting changes in behaviour through biological adaptation. Therapies like cognitive therapy focus on encouraging helpful behaviours and trying to maintain them. It was thought that these changes only affected behaviour, however, with consistent practice, the actual physical structure of the brain can be altered too (Medow, 2010). At Another Path Psychotherapy (Ottawa Psychotherapy Clinic), we use this approach to help people transition from maladaptive to adaptive behaviours by taking advantage of the brain's ability to change.