Practice question · True or false
Because plasticity is greatest early in life, the adult brain cannot form or strengthen any new connections at all.
Hints
- Greatest early does not mean absent later - reason about adult learning and recovery.
- The adult brain keeps forming, strengthening, and pruning connections as it learns.
Show the answer
False
Why
False. Plasticity is greatest early but continues throughout adulthood - the adult brain keeps forming, strengthening, and pruning connections (and grows some new neurons). Equating 'greatest early' with 'absent later' is the named pitfall.
Practise Neuroplasticity
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More questions on Neuroplasticity
- Sort each fact by whether plasticity is greatest early in life or continues into adulthood.
- Match each concrete example to the plasticity mechanism it illustrates.
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- A child with an untreated squint in early childhood can end up with permanently reduced vision in that eye,…
- Select every statement that is TRUE about neuroplasticity.
- Order the events of cortical remapping after the loss of a limb.
- Synaptic pruning removes connections that go unused, and a child's brain has far more synapses than an…