Fig.2. An empirical maturation curve of experience-mediated modification of nerve-cell connections in the immature brain.

The magnitude of modifiability in visual cortex (cortical plasticity on the ordinate) is especially strong during a relatively brief time-period of early postnatal life ("sensitive period"). The maturation of various neurochemical factors underlies the rise and fall of the plasticity curve in time.

Note that the experience-mediated neural plasticity is not necessarily totally lost in adulthood, but remains available with the significantly lowered sensitivity. Pharmacological treatments are expected to boost the neural plasticity when necessary for alteration of nerve-cell connections in adulthood.

---

Go back to the text

---