[lbo-talk] Left-neoliberalism: a bold strategy for the year 1999

[Somebody Somebody]

Miles: Here's a wonderful example of brain plasticity. When infants or toddlers suffer massive trauma in one cerebral hemisphere, the brain will typically "reroute" the interneural connections in the surviving motor cortex so that the child will recover motor control of both the left and right sides of the body. Even with something as basic as motor function, there is not a specific area of the left or right motor cortex that is rigidly "hardwired" to control a specific part of the body.

Somebody: This is true, but then neuroplasticity is seen in other mammals as well, including such creatures as rats, ferrets, and hamsters. Moreover these animals show similar increased plasticity in the developing as opposed to the mature central nervous system to what we see in humans. For example, rat models are used to help understand compensatory changes in the human brain after strokes. I'm not sure if we'd use that as evidence against the presence of innate influences on behavior on these species, though. 

Links:

Targeted mini-strokes produce changes in
interhemispheric sensory signal processing that
are indicative of disinhibition within minutes
<http://www.vchri.ca/i/pdf/MiniStrokes_BRC_June2011.pdf>

Targeted mini-strokes produce changes in
interhemispheric sensory signal processing that
are indicative of disinhibition within minutes
<http://a-s.clayton.edu/furlong/BIOL4500/papers/Pallas_TINSfinal.pdf>

Compensatory Sprouting and Impulse Rerouting after Unilateral Pyramidal Tract Lesion in Neonatal Rats
<http://neuro.cjb.net/content/20/17/6561.full>