Practice question · Match the pairs
Match each concrete example to the plasticity mechanism it illustrates.
- Practicing piano strengthens the circuits used together
- The teenage brain discards connections it no longer uses
- After an amputation, the map for the missing hand is reassigned
- New neurons form in the hippocampus to support new memories
- Neurogenesis
- Long-term potentiation
- Cortical remapping
- Synaptic pruning
Hints
- Reason from each example to the mechanism it demonstrates.
- Strengthening with practice is LTP; discarding unused links is pruning; reassigning a lost map is remapping.
Show the answer
- Practicing piano strengthens the circuits used together → Long-term potentiation
- The teenage brain discards connections it no longer uses → Synaptic pruning
- After an amputation, the map for the missing hand is reassigned → Cortical remapping
- New neurons form in the hippocampus to support new memories → Neurogenesis
Why
Strengthening with practice is LTP, discarding unused links is pruning, reassigning a lost limb's map is remapping, and forming new neurons is neurogenesis. Each example embodies one mechanism of plasticity.
Practise Neuroplasticity
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