Running Head: EFFECTS OF RESILIENCY AND NEUROPLASTICITY THROUGHOUT LIFE

Signature Assignment Taylor Spring Salt Lake Community College

Running Head: EFFECTS OF RESILIENCY AND NEUROPLASTICITY THROUGHOUT LIFE Signature Assignment Resiliency is known as extends to anything that bounces back (Bazelon 2). This means being capable of recovering from traumatic situations that has happen to a person such as
abuse, or natural disasters. Neuroplasticity is known as the brains ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life (MedicineNet). This means the nerve cells in the brain are able to reward for injury and disease and to be able to adjust their actives in response to new situations or to change the environment they are in. The brain from childhood to adulthood is capable of handling different challenges from different angles (Nelson 1). The brain shows resiliency over the lifespan by showing resilience after a traumatic but not all people bounce back as easily as others who had hard situations to cope with. You experience resilience if you deal with terrible misfortune but live a relatively successful life as defined by mental health, success in school or at work or have strong relationships with others

(Bazelon 2). Some people show very few signs or behave differently after experience abuse even, many dont people who experience abuse dont show signs later in life. This is considered resilience. For example in the article A Question of Resilience the girls that are presented to us and we experience what has happened to them, you would think that they wouldnt be able to cope with what had happened to them. Theyre very appealing kids, and I dont think anyone expected that, considering what theyve been up against (Bazelon 3). But it seems like they did, the girls took care of each other. The older sister was forced to grow up faster than she planned and raised her sister. One of the girls La Tanya works as a certified nursing assistant in a hospital, is able to pay her expenses, and is raising children of her own. The other sister Tichelle landed a good job as a computer operator, has a one year old son, and is able to pay her expenses. Both sisters were able to graduate high school and have their own cars. This is rarely found for people who have been in their situation. Studies have shown that sexually abused children- especially those who grow up in the sort of low income, messy surrounding (Bazelon

Running Head: EFFECTS OF RESILIENCY AND NEUROPLASTICITY THROUGHOUT LIFE

2). These girls are a great example of what resilience means and how they dealt with traumatic events. Neuroplasticity is shown over lifespan through the way the brain is almost infinitely adaptable from earliest infancy through latest adulthood (Nelson 1). Neuroplasticity gives a positive view on the human brain, but also its potential for it to change and develop throughout life. All of this has to do with the way the brain changes when it responds to stimuli of learning and experience. People use plasticity for purposeful reasons based on the individuals needs. You are capable of training your brain to remember or pick up on certain things based on your

interest in life. During childhood though, your brain goes through what is called anything goes plasticity which is when it trying to sort all of the information that is being learned. Once the brain is more developed in major skills, the plasticity shifts into a more purpose-driven, adult mode (Nelson 1). Then the adult brain can be trained to retain new skills. Shaping the machinery of your brain, to develop the capacities of your life (Nelson 1). When people get older they usually are wiser this is called noisier once this happens people usually begin to slow down. But for older people it is shown that auditory training is able to recover the cortical plasticity of people to 10-15 years younger than what they were. As you can tell the pattern of plasticity is very strong throughout lifespan. A way that people can familiarize characteristic of resiliency is by building positive beliefs in yourself, being able to cope with stress. When you do this usually your self esteem goes up and this makes you feel more confident about yourself giving you the confidence that you can deal with a crisis. Developing or noticing that you have people you are able to reach out to, for example La Tanya and Tichelle had very good support. The girls support was their grandmother; she would spend time with them by taking them out to the movies or other things. But this is a good way for people to contribute to resilience. Being able to forgive the person who has put you in this crisis if someone did is a good way to let go and become resistance. Becoming involved with your community, religion or taking part in actives you never thought

Running Head: EFFECTS OF RESILIENCY AND NEUROPLASTICITY THROUGHOUT LIFE

you would before. These things could lead to letting yourself know that you have a purpose and enjoy life. Become more flexible, dont always have a plan might help prepare you when you

dont know how to respond to a life crisis. Surrounding yourself with positive people will lead to positive thinking and helping you understand that sometimes life gives you difficult situations that you have skills to help face those challenges. Setting goals for yourself will help you be able to see things in a realistic way. All of these things will help you become more resilient and be able to manage problems that are difficult for you. Evidence has led us to believe that resiliency is genetic basis, such as neural responses to affective stimuli, measured with brain imaging. Influence of abuse or depression symptoms in adulthood means you have a certain alleles creating a protective effect. For example in the girls all got tested out to see if they were more genetically vulnerable. Gene environment interaction is being proved that this is the correct way but this also means that the way resilience is being treated is wrong. This cannot be like getting diagnosed, its most like being on a scale of depression and you can either go towards depression or away from it. But other factors can tip the scale and make it more powerful in the opposite direction (Bazelon 8). One of the sisters, Tichelle carries two long alleles which is a protective version of this gene. Another sister, La Tanya carries one copy of the short 5-HTT allele, which places her in the group of moderate risk of depression and still in the group of abused children. But La Tanya reassures us that she doesnt let this get the best of her, she still has good days. Now doctors are going to request this 5-HTT test so people can have a better understand of what it is that they are experiencing. Hopefully others will feel the same way La Tanya did, by feeling a little better that there is a reason for all this and for her life being hard on her. But the sisters know now that they are able to do something for themselves. This assignment really helps me understand the difference between neuroplasticity and resiliency. I really enjoyed how in the article about neuroplasticity it was a bunch of presenter all shared the same views on this topic. You got to see how they all go about research differently,

Running Head: EFFECTS OF RESILIENCY AND NEUROPLASTICITY THROUGHOUT LIFE

but eventually get the same result. Its funny how sometimes people think the correct way to do business is. In the second article that was about resiliency was very interesting how the author told this. I really like how the author started off and told the stories about the sisters, it made it easier to relate to the them and understand what traumatic event they were facing and how they went about it. This assignment helped me have a better understanding of what neuroplasticity and resiliency.

Running Head: EFFECTS OF RESILIENCY AND NEUROPLASTICITY THROUGHOUT LIFE References Bazeloni, E. (2006). A question of resilience. New York Times, 1-8. Nelson, L. (n.d.). A Learning Machine: Plasticity and Change Throughout Life. Association for Psychological Science RSS. Neuroplasticity definition - Medical Dictionary definitions of popular medical terms easily defined on MedTerms. (n.d.). Medterms. Retrieved from http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=40362