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Research Neuroplasticity

Discuss how understanding the principles of neuroplasticity benefits people


By knowing how our brain works and what caused our brain to deteriorate, it means we have found the problem statement. We are lucky enough to know that scientists have already provided evident that there are 10 principles of neuroplasticity can help to prevent, slow down or even reverse the brain deterioration. By intentionally applying the principles of neuroplasticity in our daily life with consistency, we definately can benefit and improve our life by growing stronger and smarter.

Below are some facts that scientist put up together about the neuroplasticity.


It was once thought that any brain function lost was irretrievable. Today, research into what's referred to as "brain plasticity" has proven that this is not the case. On the contrary, your brain continues to make new neurons throughout life in response to mental activity.


Aside from toxicity, our modern lifestyle plays a part in cognitive decline, actually, our brain is designed and constructed to be stimulated and challenged, and to carefully examine, resolve and interpret your environment. During the early days of mankind's development, keeping track of the details was imperative for survival. Today however, we tend to try to remove ourselves from the details of life. For example, instead of keeping track of appointments and to-do lists in our head, we use electronic gadgets with reminder features. Our streets are paved and lit, requiring virtually no attention to navigate from one location to another. And if you don't sufficiently challenge your brain with new, surprising information, it eventually begins to deteriorate.




There are total 10 principles of neuroplasticity. They are:


1. "Use It or Lose It" "Neural circuits not actively engaged in task performance for an extended period of time begin to degrade." An example of this might be seen in the treatment of a patient who requires g-tube feeding due to an inability to be fed orally. Over time, the circuits responsible for the swallowing mechanism may actually begin to degrade due to lack of use. Subsequently, when that patient is able to begin to swallow again, they may require additional time and trials to re-establish this process as these circuits may be a bit "rusty."


2. "Use It and Improve It" "Training that drives a specific brain function can lead to enhancement of that function." An example of this can be highlighted from the previous discussion of a stroke patient who may have lost use of a particular side of their body and may be neglecting that side or not using it because it is simply too difficult. In the treatment setting, a technique known as constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) can be used to restrain the arm on the non-affected side so that the patient is compelled to use their affected limb as much as possible and improve its function.


3. "Specificity" "The nature of the training experience dictates the nature of the plasticity." From a treatment standpoint, specificity highlights the importance of tailoring an activity or exercise to produce a result in specific circuitry. For example, as discussed earlier, physical exercise can be utilized to promote vascular growth, if that is your aim. By the same token, exercises and modalities geared toward enhancing swallowing might also be related to the circuitry involved in producing speech, but may not necessarily generalize to actually producing speech.


4. "Repetition Matters" "Induction of plasticity requires sufficient repetition." One of the challenges for therapists in the rehabilitation environment can often revolve around being able to quantify how much time or how many sessions of specific therapy a patient needs to recover certain skills. Stakeholders, especially insurance representatives and the patients themselves, want to know, "How long is it going to take to get better?" The truth is, we don't know these actual numbers, but we do know from research and study, that thousands and tens of thousands of repetitions of certain activities are needed to generate these changes. Because of this, it may take utilizing techniques such as combining therapies to provide patients the opportunities for sufficient repetition of skills. For example, to get those "thousands of steps" that a patient may need to learn to walk again, a physical therapist may have the patient walking in and between their other therapies during the day or making sure they are getting up and out of their wheelchair when they are not in their PT session. By the same token, a physical therapist could help out the speech therapist by having the patient work on memory or path-finding activities during their PT session.


5. "Intensity Matters" "Induction of plasticity requires sufficient intensity." The question of proper therapy intensity follows this concept of repetition as well: " What is the proper dosage of therapy necessary? "How many sessions?" How long should these sessions be?' Research has also shown us that the more intensive the therapy program, the more likely a person is to achieve results and the more likely these changes are to be maintained over time.


6. "Time Matters" "Different forms of plasticity occur at different times during recovery." This principle is based on the idea that after an injury, the brain really wants to recover, so it makes sense that the earlier you provide the opportunity for recovery through these neuroplastic changes, the better. This "early vs. late" approach is especially important to support the beginning treatment before maladaptive behaviors have a chance to spring up.


7. "Salience Matters" "The training experience must be sufficiently salient to induce plasticity." What the person takes away from the training experience and what it means to them can affect their recovery. It is important for the therapist to know what is important to the patient, as emotions can modulate the strength of training or, for example, something like memory consolidation. If the therapist can make the training or information salient and important to the patient, they can more easily remember skills or pieces of information that are important to them, as their brains are often already overwhelmed with input.


8. "Age Matters" "Training-induce plasticity occurs more readily in younger brains." As discussed earlier, younger brains are already more plastic and adaptable to change than older brains, which is important to keep in mind when working with older versus younger patients.


9. "Transference or Generalization" "Plasticity in response to one training experience can enhance acquisition of similar behaviors." In the training process, the therapist needs to have an eye toward how a particular skill or activity can be generalized or transferred to real world activities, such as increased independence in the home environment.


10. "Interference" "Plasticity in response to one training experience can impede acquisition of similar behaviors." When patients are actually able to come in for neurological treatment and that treatment is delayed, they often come in with compensatory behaviors for skill deficits, having already learned a different way of compensating, but which may not be the best way. With this, some of the challenge to learning the best way to regain a skill may involve "unlearning" some of these previously acquired behaviors.


Discuss how might engage with the principals of neuroplasticity for your own benefit

By knowing the facts that each and everyone of us will grow older one day, and if we are do nothing about it, our thoughts, our action, and health will deteriote together with the age. It is obvious that elderly people move and talk slower than young one, and their thinking and reaction might not be as sharp as when they are younger. Therefore, if we can start to train our brain from now on by putting the 10 principles we have just learn into practice, we will definately enjoy and reap the benefit of it when we are old. The only thing we will regret in life is you know something that is good for you but you never taking any action. Similarly, saving need to start from young, control our diet, do physical exercise, learning new skills, and be perseverance about it, then you are doing yourself a big favour!


What are some of the ways to increase your neuroplasticity

Here are some practical ways that we can use it to increase our neuroplasticity.
1. Practice "Mindfulness" in which you are attentively focusing on the world around you again, as if you are seeing it for the first time.
2. Stay socially engaged.
3. Find way to engage yourself in new learning, such as pick up a new hobbies, learning new skills.
4. Spend about five minutes every day working on the refinement of a specific, small domain of your physical body. move in a very variable and controlled way – variable in speed, variable to reach a target, for example, with your big toe or your little finger.
5. Get 15-30 minutes of physical exercise each day, when exercising, think about using your brain to control your actions. That means, skip the iPod and instead take in the details of your environment.
6. Participate in brain training programme, such as exercise listed in Brain HQ Website.


Link to a resource that you found particularly useful or engaging.

https://www.neuroskills.com/brain-injury/ten-principles-of-neuroplasticity.php



Research Growth Mindset

Discuss what it is and why it is relevant

Mindset is about self-conceptions, people use it to structure the self and guide their behavior. The reason mindset is so relevant to us because it plays a role in motivation and self-regulation, and it impacts on achievement and interpersonal processes. Of course there good and not so good mindset. The good is called growth mindset and not so good is named fixed mindset. Your view of yourself can determine everything. If you believe that your qualities are unchangeable, the fixed mindset, you will want to prove yourself correct over and over again rather than learning from your mistakes; it is just behave opposite from the growth mindset.


To briefly sum up what is growth mindset: Individual who believe their talent can be developed through hardwork, good strategies, and even inputs from others, are the one having growth mindset. They tend to achieve more than those with a fixed mindset. Fixed mindset people are those who believe they talents are innate gift. The key reason that growth mindset people tend to achieve more is they worry less about looking smart and they put more energy into learning.


In this exploration, did anything surprise you? Change for you?


Yes. There are actually 2 main things that caught my surprise.
1. Growth Mindset can be impletemented in a bigger scale, such as an organisation.
2. Misconception about growth mindset.


When the entire companies embrace a growth mindset, their employee report feeling far more empowered and committed; they also receive far greater organisation support for collaboration and innovation. In contrast people at primary fixed-mindset companies report more of only one thing: cheating and deception among employees, presumably to gain an advantage in the talent race.


There are 3 misconception about growth mindset.


1. I already have it, and I always have. People confuse a growth mindset with being flexible or open-minded or with having a positive outlook - the qualities they believe they've simply always had. Actually, everyone has both fixed and growth mindsets, and that mixture continue evolves with experience. A "pure" growth mindset just doesn't exist, which we just have to acknowledge in order to obtain the benefits we seek.


2. A growth mindset is just about the praising and rewarding effort. This isn't true to a school student, neither the employees in organisations. In both settings, the outcomes matter. Unproductive effort is never a good thing. It's critical to reward not just effort but learning and progress, and emphasize the process of getting that yield this things, including seeking help from others, trying new strategies, and capitalizing on setbacks to move forward effectively.


3. Just espouse a growth mindset, and good thing will follow. Some companies just have it in their mission statement, but doesn't implement policy that make them real and attainable. They just amount to lip service. Organization that embody a growth mindset encourage appropriate risk-taking, knowing that some risks won't work out. They reward employees for important and useful lesson learned, even the project does not meet its original goal. They support collaboration across organisational boundaries rather than competition among employees or departments. They are committed to growth of each employees not just in words but in deeds, such as broadly available development and advancement opportunities. And they continually reinforce growth mindset values with concrete policies.


However, even if we correct this misconceptions, it is still not easy to attain the growth mindset. One key reason is each of us have our own fixed-mindset triggers. When we face challenges, receive criticism, or fare poorly compare to others, we can easily fall into insecurity or defensiveness, a response that inhibits growth. A company that plays the talent game makes it harder for people to practise growth mindset thinking and behavior, such as sharing information, collaborating, innovating, seeking feedback, or admitting errors.


To remain in a growth zone, we must identify and work with the fixed-mindset triggers. Many managers and executives over time has learned to talk back to it, when ever the fixed mindset "persona" shows up which make them feel threatened or defensive. They learned to pursuading themself to collaborate when they pursue challenging goals.


In summary, attain growth mindset is hard work, but individuals and organisations can gain a lot by deepening their undersanding of growth mindset concepts and the processes putting them into practice. It gives them a richer sense of who they are, what they stand for, and how they want to move forward.


How will you integrate growth mindset into your learning journey?

Acknowledge that we have both fixed and growth mindset in us. With a willingness heart to work on the fixed mindset when we identify one and having intention to embrace growth mindsets. Focus on learning.


Link to a resource that you found particularly useful or engaging.

https://fs.blog/2015/03/carol-dweck-mindset/
https://www.mindsetworks.com/schools/default


Blend with your learning plan and strategies

Identify which part of the learning plan can be integrate the concept of principles of Neuroplasticity and Growth Mindset, then pay close monitoring and only keep those then suitable and effective.


Reflect and discuss how these understandings may shape or
influence your learning plan and strategy.

Now, when I look back about my learning plan, it is no longer just an individual learning plan. To create an effective "growth mindset" learning plan is no longer only responsible to our ownselves but also towards others in the same organisation. It is our responsibility to seek a win-win case, to be collarative among each other, to have fun and succeed together as a whole!