Neural Plasticity - Bryant McGill

# Neural Plasticity **Entity class:** Technology, method, or technical system **Domain:** Neuroscience / Learning **Doc Type:** Scientific Concept Node **Maturity:** Established **Related:** [[Synaptic Ensemble]], [[Long-Term Memory Substrate]], [[Phosphorylation Signaling]] --- ## Definition **Neural plasticity** is the capacity of neural systems to change their connectivity, synaptic efficacy, intrinsic excitability, molecular state, or functional organization in response to activity, experience, injury, or development. ## Continuity relevance Identity persists through change rather than despite it. A continuity architecture must represent plastic state and history without assuming that fidelity means freezing the brain at one configuration. ## Neurotech cluster route **Collection:** [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]] **Source articles:** [[articles/The Architecture of Continuity and Emerging Neuroinformatics Standards|The Architecture of Continuity and Emerging Neuroinformatics Standards]] ## Relationships [[wiki/Neural Plasticity|Neural Plasticity]] is related to [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]] through [[articles/The Architecture of Continuity and Emerging Neuroinformatics Standards|The Architecture of Continuity and Emerging Neuroinformatics Standards]].  This entry's documented connections are expressed in its definition and related-work routes, with provenance retained in the source-linked material.  - **Neurotech source and collection relationship:** [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]] maps the applicable interface evidence in [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] and [[articles/2026 Annual Report on Brain-Computer Interfaces|2026 Annual Report on Brain-Computer Interfaces]]. ## Related Work in the Corpus  - In [[articles/The Architecture of Continuity and Emerging Neuroinformatics Standards|The Architecture of Continuity and Emerging Neuroinformatics Standards]], ****1.2 Mind Uploading Frameworks and Biological State Maintenance**** provides the narrative context for **Neural Plasticity**: Molecular and dynamical state: tractography · U3 molecular data classes · U10 thermodynamic data classes · neural plasticity · synaptogenesis · phosphorylation signaling · receptor trafficking · proteostasis · RNA editing ·…  ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > "In essence this means that the high degree of brain plasticity normally evident only during early development can now be made to occur throughout the life span. This is undoubtedly a game changer in the brain sciences. Imagine being able to restore the plasticity of neurons in the language centers of your brain, enabling you to learn any and all languages effortlessly and at a rapid pace. The restoration of neuronal plasticity would also have important clinical implications since unlike in the mature brain, connections in the developing brain are capable of sprouting (i.e. new growth). For this reason, this technology could provide a powerful means to combat loss of neuronal connections, including those resulting from brain injury as well as various disease states." > **— Leo M. Chalupa**, *2009, Edge Annual Question, “What Will Change Everything?”* [[reminders/Neural Interfaces/Restored Brain Plasticity Could Make Learning Effortless by Leo M. Chalupa|Restored Brain Plasticity Could Make Learning Effortless by Leo M. Chalupa]] > "Hidden layers embody, in a concrete physical form, the fashionable but rather vague and abstract idea of emergence. Each hidden layer neuron has a template. It becomes activated, and sends signals of its own to the next layer, precisely when the pattern of information it's receiving from the preceding layer matches (within some tolerance) that template. But this is just to say, in precision-enabling jargon, that the neuron defines, and thus creates, a new emergent concept." > **— Frank Wilczek**, *2011, Edge Annual Question, “What Scientific Concept Would Improve Everybody's Cognitive Toolkit?”* [[reminders/Information/Hidden Layers Create New Emergent Concepts by Frank Wilczek|Hidden Layers Create New Emergent Concepts by Frank Wilczek]] > "Some topics in psychology have advanced beyond essentialist views. Memory, for example, was once thought to be a single process, and later was split into distinct subtypes like semantic memory and episodic memory. Memories are now considered to be constructed within the brain's functional architecture and not to reside in specific brain tissue. One hopes that other areas of psychology and neuroscience will soon follow suit. For example, cognition and emotion are still considered separate processes in the mind and brain, but there is growing evidence that the brain does not respect this division. This means every psychological theory in which emotions and cognitions battle each other, or in which cognitions regulate emotions, is wrong." > **— Lisa Feldman Barrett**, *2014, Edge Annual Question, “What Scientific Idea Is Ready for Retirement?”* [[reminders/Consciousness/The Brain Does Not Separate Cognition From Emotion by Lisa Feldman Barrett|The Brain Does Not Separate Cognition From Emotion by Lisa Feldman Barrett]] > “How can we sculpt how individual brains develop to avert mental illness?” > **— Linda Wilbrecht**, *2018 Edge Annual Question, question* [[reminders/Neural Interfaces/Can We Shape Brain Development to Avert Mental Illness by Linda Wilbrecht|Can We Shape Brain Development to Avert Mental Illness by Linda Wilbrecht]] > “Human culture and human cognition exists because the brain's neural plasticity allows learned symbolic associations to substitute for the innate inputs and outputs of already evolved ape cognitions, a process that extends greatly their functionality.” > **— John R. Skoyles**, *2004 Edge Annual Question, response passage* [[reminders/Evolution/Neural Plasticity Lets Culture Extend Ape Cognition by John R. Skoyles|Neural Plasticity Lets Culture Extend Ape Cognition by John R. Skoyles]] > “In my primary research, I ask, what is the neural basis of human intelligence, and how can our understanding of brain development and plasticity be used to construct more effective learning environments? With Gabrielle Starr, an English professor at NYU and Anne Hamker here at Caltech, we are asking, what is the brain basis of aesthetic experience, and how can such an understanding be used to deepen our emotional life? With Michael Dobry, co-director of the graduate industrial design program at the Art Center College of Design, we are asking, what is the relation between design and the brain, and how can the design of daily life be more in line with the brain's capacities?” > **— Steven R. Quartz**, *2002, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT IS YOUR QUESTION? ... WHY?”* [[reminders/Neural Interfaces/Brain Science Can Help Design Better Human Lives by Steven R. Quartz|Brain Science Can Help Design Better Human Lives by Steven R. Quartz]] > “My experience of the Web, feels fragmented, discontinuous, effortful (and interesting!) because, for adults, learning a new technology depends on conscious, attentive, intentional processing. In adults, this kind of conscious attention is a very limited resource. This is even true at the neural level. When we pay attention to something, the prefrontal cortex, the part of our brain responsible for conscious goal-directed planning, controls the release of cholinergic transmitters, chemicals that help us learn, to certain very specific parts of the brain. So as we wrestle with a new technology we adults can only change our minds a little bit at a time.” > **— Alison Gopnik**, *2010, Edge Annual Question, “HOW IS THE INTERNET CHANGING THE WAY YOU THINK?”* [[reminders/Neural Interfaces/Adults Can Change Their Minds Only a Little at a Time by Alison Gopnik|Adults Can Change Their Minds Only a Little at a Time by Alison Gopnik]] > “Mr. President, do continue to support research in neuroscience. We need to know more about the effects of love or trauma, of intellectual stimulation or monotony on the brain itself. Brain structure may increasingly be seen as a result rather than a cause. Keep the work going in human genetics and biochemistry. Doing science is after all derived from the evolved human capacity to adapt by learning and we can hope that some of the hubris will settle down with time. But put your money into research and policy for the great long term experiment of building a world in which everyone can learn to be the best they can be.” > **— Mary Catherine Bateson**, *2003, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT ARE THE PRESSING SCIENTIFIC ISSUES FOR THE NATION AND THE WORLD, AND WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE ON HOW I CAN BEGIN TO DEAL WITH THEM? - GWB”* [[reminders/Civilization/Build a World Where Everyone Can Learn to Be Their Best by Mary Catherine Bateson|Build a World Where Everyone Can Learn to Be Their Best by Mary Catherine Bateson]]