Experience-dependent plasticity in amputees
Event details
| Date | 12.09.2014 |
| Hour | 13:00 › 14:00 |
| Speaker | Dr. Tamar Makin, Dept. of Clinical Neurosciences, Oxford University. |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Amputation is a particularly useful model for studying plasticity as it combines two powerful drivers for plasticity – sensory deprivation and altered use (adaptive motor behaviour compensational to the disability). Yet little evidence exists for interaction between sensory deprivation and use-related plasticity. Instead, research on amputation has been mostly restricted to maladaptive plasticity, with a focus on phantom pain.
Here we test the extent to which experience alters brain structure and function in individuals with unilateral hand absence, using neuroimaging approaches. I will present evidence to challenge the proposed link between cortical reorganisation and phantom pain, and instead demonstrate preserved topographic representations of the missing (‘phantom’) hand. I will show that phantom pain is associated with maintained representation of the phantom hand, and not brain plasticity.
I will further show that adaptive behaviour in amputees can drive plasticity well beyond the “critical period” time-window, though such plasticity may be restricted to the deprived cortex. I will provide new evidence for the relationship between lateralised limb-use patterns and lateralised structural and functional plasticity. Based on these evidence, I will suggest that plasticity in amputees is experience-dependant, and is not maladaptive.
Here we test the extent to which experience alters brain structure and function in individuals with unilateral hand absence, using neuroimaging approaches. I will present evidence to challenge the proposed link between cortical reorganisation and phantom pain, and instead demonstrate preserved topographic representations of the missing (‘phantom’) hand. I will show that phantom pain is associated with maintained representation of the phantom hand, and not brain plasticity.
I will further show that adaptive behaviour in amputees can drive plasticity well beyond the “critical period” time-window, though such plasticity may be restricted to the deprived cortex. I will provide new evidence for the relationship between lateralised limb-use patterns and lateralised structural and functional plasticity. Based on these evidence, I will suggest that plasticity in amputees is experience-dependant, and is not maladaptive.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
Organizer
- Prof O. Blanke, Center for Neuroprosthetics.