Neuroplasticity

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

The brain's remarkable ability to reorganise its structure, function, and connections in response to learning, experience, injury, or disease throughout a person's lifetime; neuroplasticity underlies rehabilitation after brain injury, the acquisition of new skills, and adaptation to sensory or motor loss.

Examples

• The rehabilitation programme exploited neuroplasticity to help stroke patients regain movement in paralysed limbs.
• Research on neuroplasticity has overturned the old belief that the adult brain is fixed and incapable of change.

Synonyms: brain plasticity, synaptic plasticity, cortical remapping