Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity is the nervous system’s capacity to change its structure or function in response to experience, learning, development, or injury.

Synaptic plasticity: Activity-dependent changes in the strength or efficacy of connections between neurons. It is a central cellular mechanism through which experience alters neural circuits.
Memory consolidation: The processes that stabilize newly formed memories over time. Plastic changes help convert transient learning into more durable memory.
Neuron: An electrically excitable cell that communicates with other cells through electrical and chemical signals. Neurons are the signaling units whose connections and properties can change.
Neural stability: The persistence of neural properties and circuit organization despite changing conditions. Plasticity must coexist with stability so learned abilities and established functions endure.
Adult neurogenesis: The generation of new neurons in the adult brain. Its extent in humans and functional contribution remain debated.
Long-term potentiation: A persistent increase in synaptic strength following particular patterns of neural activity. It provides a well-studied model of activity-driven strengthening during learning.
Motor learning: The acquisition or refinement of movements through practice and experience. Practice can reshape neural circuits that control and coordinate movement.
Synapse: A junction through which a neuron communicates with another cell. Changes at synapses provide one basic substrate for experience-dependent plasticity.
Maladaptive plasticity: Plastic neural change that contributes to persistent pain, harmful habits, or other dysfunction. It shows that experience-driven change is not necessarily beneficial.
Metaplasticity: The way a neuron's history of activity changes its capacity for future synaptic plasticity. It raises the question of how past experience sets the conditions for further change.

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