An Integrated Approach to Neuro-development, Neuroplasticity and Cognitive Improvement

Abstract

Plasticity is a basic process that underlies neural and cognitive functioning, unraveling thus the former’s pervasive role in development and learning. Plasticity processes operate in both normal development and in the development following early injury. However, as the neural system matures, there is a gradual commitment of neural resources to, maturationally defined functions and a concomitant loss in flexibility and in the capacity of the system to reorganize. Brain plasticity has been intertwined with induced reorganization of local patterns of connectivity in the neural system, whose specification and stabilization relies on dynamic processes that are the product of the multidirectional interaction of genetic processes, contingencies of input and the demands of the learning environment. Moreover, bioenergetic challenges - exercise, diet and activity in neuronal circuits - synaptic plasticity and neurogenesis, are innately connected to cognitive function, such as learning, memory, attention, emotion regulation and human behavior.