Neuroplasticity : Changing Minds And Changing Brains

As a school psychologist I have found that many of the students, parents, and educators that I work with believe that intelligence is a “fixed” trait. Despite popular belief, however, as we learn more about the structure and function of the brain it is increasingly clear that the brain changes as we learn from, and adapt to, environmental demands. These changes in the structure and function of the brain in turn produce changes in behavior, and I use behavior to refer to any observable action including the demonstration of cognitive and academic skills. In the following article I discuss the topic of neuroplasticity citing the work Mark Rosenwieg and Michael Merzenich, two of the foremost researchers on the topic. Further, I discuss some implications of neuroplasticity on the practice of school psychology.


Principles Of Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity is a term used to describe the brains ability to change in response to one's experiences, and over the past 40 years Mark Rosenzweig and his colleagues at UC Berkeley have demonstrated that both the brain and behavior of laboratory rats changes as a result of different environmental demands (Rosenzweig, 2003).Rosenzweig (2003) has found that laboratory rats exposed to greater social interaction and stimulating environments develop larger neurons, a greater number of dendrites, and increased branching of dendrites.Not only do changes occur in the brains of these rats, but their problem solving skills improve as well, as demonstrated by their performances on spatial mazes.While a great deal of research has been done with laboratory rats, similar results have been demonstrated in all species for which research has been conducted including birds, cats, monkeys, and humans (Rosenzweig, 2003).While Rosenzweig (2003) has cautioned against the overgeneralization of such findings, he concludes that "the variety of findings on plasticity are encouraging for education and for the recovery of function" (p.536).
Consistent with the data presented by Rosenzweig (2003), Buonomano and Merzenich (1998) write that the brain is not a fixed entity but rather a dynamic structure that is continuously altered by one's behavioral experiences.
In reviewing decades of research on neuroplasticity, Buonomano and Merzenich (1998)  154).In other words, the more frequently the connection between two neurons is activated the stronger and more efficient that connection becomes.This rule is at the heart of Hebbian plasticity (Donald Hebb, 1949) or the process in which "neurons that fire together, wire together".This is the neurological basis of memory and learning (Buonomano & Merzenich, 1998).

Developing A Change Mindset
Many of us grow up learning that our various skills, whether "intellectual" or physical, are fixed biological traits.four weeks of intensive computer based language listening exercises.These outcomes were attributed to the plasticity of the brain and that the language training exercises created changes in the structure and function of temporal processing areas.
The computer program employed by the researchers was designed to first establish a baseline of the child's temporal integration rates, in other words their ability to discriminate between subtle acoustic changes within syllables and words.The objective was to then close the gap between the child's current skills and more typical rates by gradually changing the auditory stimuli that the child is exposed to (e.g. from slower more deliberate speech segmentation to more typical speech rates).Tallal et. al. (1998) found that the program had the effect of "speeding up the temporal integration rates" of language learning impaired (LLI) children that participated in the studies.
The authors concluded from their data that "faster processing rates correlated significantly with improved ability to process individual speech sounds (phonemes) within words-a fundamental goal of both speech and language therapy for language impaired children, as well as phonological awareness training for reading impaired (dyslexic) children " (p. 198).Their initial program was then expanded to include 7 different computer based training exercises designed to improve auditory processing skills and marketed under the name Fast ForWord (Tallal et. al. 1998).These researchers have since found the program to be effective in improving the language processing skills of children with language impairments as well as children with co-morbid central auditory processing disorder (CAPD), attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorders (AD/HD), reading disorders (dyslexia), and autism (Talla et. al., 1998).

Conclusion
Advances in neuroscience over the past 30 years teach us that the brain is not a fixed entity but rather a dynamic structure that is continuously altered by one's behavioral experiences.Active engagement in novel learning has been demonstrated to produce changes in the brain including new and larger neurons, greater numbers of dendrites, and increased branching of dendrites.
Further, frequent activation of neural connections improve the strengths and efficiently of information processing.
As school psychologists, we must take active roles in promoting learning and behavioral changes in students experiencing educational difficulties.
First, we can do this by promoting in students, as well as their parents and teachers, an "incremental theory" of intelligence in which "ability" is viewed as malleable quality that changes in response to active engagement in learning, hard work, and strategy use.Further, since we know that deficient