Assignment on Psychology

Psychology

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Psychology is the science of behaviour and mind which includes conscious and
unconsciousness as well as various types of feelings or thought process of an individual.
Basically, a psychologist is responsible for understanding the major role of mental functions and
highlights the reason behind an individual reaction in particular state (Heider, (2013). Therefore,
this assignment is going to cover nature of brain plasticity which explains the subject related
with brain that keeps changing throughout a person life. Mainly, phantom limbs, stroke,
recovery, stem cells and all the other elements associated with brain will further outlined in this
project.
MAIN BODY
Human brain is seen as central organ of human nervous system and spinal cord make it as
a central part of nervous system. However, brain consist of cerebrum, brainstem and cerebellum
which is liable for controlling large number of body activities such as; processing, integrating
and coordinating data that is receives from various sense organs. Mainly, brain is surrounded by
skull bones of head which helps in protecting internal parts and cerebrum is seen as largest part
of the head. Furthermore, cerebrum is classified into two cerebral hemispheres such as; cerebral
cortex which is considers as an outer layer of grey matter and covered the core of white matter.
However, cortex is again segregated into neocortex and smaller one is named as allocortex.
Therefore, human brain is full of complex parts which affect an individual in various manners.
Just like human body, brain also gets changes in every passing year of an individual by adapting,
learning and creating memories or many more. For example; child become smarter, sharper and
earns the wisdom which only comes with their life experience. After entering into late twenties,
aging procedure of brains started and a person starts losing neurons which are the cells that helps
in making up the bran and its nervous system. Till the sixties of human being, brains literally
begun to shrink. It means, changes in brain system of an individual are sound bit scary but this
process is totally natural which happens with every person (Csikszentmihalyi, (2014).
Basically, a person had born with basic survival skills which grow as per the coming age
group and developed by gaining distinct experiences. Brain of child’s developed at their early
age in entire life so that they get succeeded in acquiring new things in their life. In fact,
experience of child at their initial stage helps in shaping their brain and developed either in
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positive way or negative. However, brain is seen as a command centre of human beings because
brain is responsible to direct individual towards positive or negative track in their life. A new
born baby is having all the cells related with brain which is known as neurons that is utilized by
them in entire life. Thus, connections with brain cells helps in moving a person, thinking,
communicating and do whatever brain directs. Mainly, early age of a child is a very crucial time
period because all the neural connections are created in every second of this age instead of any
other time (Brain Development, 2019). Hence, various areas of brain are liable for distinct
abilities such as; movement, language and emotion. Therefore, it has been understood that brain
of human being get changed throughout the life and affected by various life experiences which is
known as brain plasticity.
On the other hand, brain plasticity is also known as neuroplasticity which denotes the
ability of brain for changing and adapting as an outcome of experience. Generally, Neuro means
neurons which are mainly consider as nerve cells that are involved in building blocks of brain
and nervous system whereas plasticity is a term which signifies the brain’s malleability.
According to researchers till almost 1960s, development of brain is only take place while infancy
and childhood because they believe that physical structure of adult brains become permanent. On
contrary to this statement, modern researcher team states that brain always continues to design
new neural pathways and modified existing ones by adapting new experiences, acquiring fresh
information and always believes in creating new memories (Maslow, (2013).
In around 1920s, investigator Karl Lashley provided an evidence of modification in
neural pathways of rhesus monkeys. Furthermore, various psychologists came for identifying the
cases related with adult who had suffered from danger strokes are still regaining functioning of
brain and clarifies that brain becomes much more malleable as compared to previous one.
However, human brain covers almost 86 million neurons and it has been believed that
neurogenesis or emergence of new neurons stopped after the birth. Some of the major
characteristics of neuroplasticity include such as; it can vary according to age which means
plasticity occurs in overall life of an individual as some of the changes are more predominant
while particular life ages. Additionally, plasticity is seen as continuous process which covers
brain cells as compared to neurons that includes glial and vascular cells. Moreover, it has been
analysed that plasticity incurred because of learning, experiences and formation of memory or an
outcome of brain damage. At the same time, some of the people believe that brain became fixed
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after particular age group whereas modern researcher team revealed that brain never stopped
developing or learning. Although in the case of damage of brain like stroke only damaged the
certain functions of brain. But, healthy parts of head over take those damaged functions and
helps in restoring its abilities for smooth functioning of overall parts (Kendra Cherry, 2018). In
fact, surrounding of human being plays a very eminent role in shaping their brain as interaction
with distinct people design the plasticity of brain as well as genetics of a person act as major
player in directing brain.
Meanwhile, there are two types of neuroplasticity are identified which includes such as;
functional plasticity and structural plasticity which shows the capability of brain in moving from
damage region towards undamaged areas. Whereas, structural neuroplasticity involved in
changing physical shape of brain by learning distinct things from surrounding. Thus, there are
number of factors are identified associated with brain’s development and its damaging such as;
stroke is one of them which influence a person mind in drastic manner (Simmons, Nelson &
Simonsohn, (2011).
Stroke influence each and every individual in distinct manner and get improved over long
time which might in number of years. Mainly, recovery from major stroke covers changing in
physical, social and emotional aspects of a person life. Some of the major symptoms or action of
an individual after stroke is; feeling angry, anxious, depressed, a person might tense for its work,
money and relationship as well as tiredness cause’s stroke more worst. On the other hand,
rehabilitation is a term which means getting back to normal life and live as independent as per
own terms and conditions without any restrictions. Basically, it covers taking of a positive
approach for ensuring that life can goes in a smooth manner. It means that, an individual can
learn new things and trying to relearn old ones which may covers adapting new limitations.
Additionally, recovery helps in identifying new social, emotional and practical support
for living best life after stroke with the help of good care and rehabilitation process. An
indispensable step in recovery is to back to community living after the hospital and able to live
with totally new challenges which affects the person life. In fact, life of a person totally get
changed after stroke and person have to follow distinct lifestyle which can anything such as;
healthy diet, controlling weight by doing yoga, exercises and following things to be active.
Hence, primary motive of stroke recover is to minimize the injury of brain and encourage patient
towards maximum recovery which is only possible by instant detection or suitable emergency
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medical care are really indispensable for positive result of health. Once a patient gets succeeded
in medically stable then they are focussing on rehabilitation for coming back to their normal life.
Thus, brain repairing goes through various processes with the help of several tools and
techniques in order to recover problems in better manner. For example; electrical stimulation
which mimics the action of healthy muscles for enhancing the function of brain and helps in
retraining weak muscles for making it possible to normal movement. Apart from this, there are
number of methods are used by medical practitioner for helping a person to recover their stroke
in order to back to normal life (Adler, (2013).
Phantom limb is sensation or pain which feels by a person that its coming from body part
but doctors believes that post-amputation phenomenon is a psychological problem and expertise
states that real sensation comes from spinal cord or brain of a person. However, few people face
this pain in arms and legs which are unbearable. As per the researchers, nerves which are located
in the spinal cord and brain “rewire” means when they lose signals from the arms and legs then
at that time person faces a phantom limb. Basically, it has been analysed that all the muscles of
body are connected with brain because it can direct a person to act accordingly such as; feel,
react, angry, happy, pain and many more. Therefore, phantom limb also shows the pain which is
feel by arms and legs of a person because of signal losing in brain that automatically influence
muscles of various body parts. However, not all the phantom limbs are painful as sometime
people feels various things which are not painful such as; itching, twitch or might they tries to
picking something up. Generally, pain becomes worst because of stress, anxiety and due to
changes in weather. Additionally, few people who are going through gender reassignment
surgery have reported the sensation of phantom genitals (Zuckerman, (2014).
Neural stem cells are known as multipotent adult stem cells which are present in adult
central nervous system which can self-renew and gave rise to fresh new neurons for helping cells
which are known as glial cells. However, nervous system of human being are fully complex
structure which aids in sending electrical signals from brain to entire body in order to help for
moving and thinking. Although, if cells of brain get destroyed by trauma or disease then stem
cells automatically regenerated. Basically, in brain there are numerous of stem cells are
identified which persist into adulthood which offers probable source of new cells for repairing
the destroyed brain. Moreover, astrocyte neural stem cells can automatically self-renew and aids
in generating new neurons as per the brain injury whereas another kind of cell named as
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ependymal cells offers an appropriate supportive lining between brain and fluid which helps in
bathes the brain. In fact, ependymal cells is also seen as most significant regulators of neural
stem cells functions which helps brain muscles in several manner. Hence, it has been understood
brain is surrounded by several types of nerves and cells which helps them in proper functioning
in porder to support an individual in their regular life.
CONCLUSION
From the above essay, it has been summarized that muscles of entire body is directly
connected with brain which automatically influence working of head in various manner. It
means, development of person brain is continues and changes as per the life experience of an
individual. Thus, head of human being is full of complex parts which are not easy to understand
and handled until and unless a person is having knowledge about it. Throughout the project,
several parts of brain are explained in order to understand that undamaged functioning of brain
helps in improving damaged functions. As a result, it has been understood that changes in human
brain continues over the life and modified according to learning.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Heider, F. (2013). The psychology of interpersonal relations. Psychology Press.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014). Toward a psychology of optimal experience. In Flow and the
foundations of positive psychology (pp. 209-226). Springer, Dordrecht.
Maslow, A. H. (2013). Toward a psychology of being. Simon and Schuster.
Zuckerman, M. (2014). Sensation seeking (psychology revivals): beyond the optimal level of
arousal. Psychology Press.
Simmons, J. P., Nelson, L. D., & Simonsohn, U. (2011). False-positive psychology: Undisclosed
flexibility in data collection and analysis allows presenting anything as
significant. Psychological science, 22(11), 1359-1366.
Adler, A. (2013). Understanding Human Nature (Psychology Revivals). Routledge.
Online
Kendra Cherry, 2018. [Online]. Available through<https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-
brain-plasticity-2794886> .
Brain Development, 2019. [Online]. Available through< https://www.firstthingsfirst.org/early-
childhood-matters/brain-development/>
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