Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change its connections influenced by internal and external forces exerted on it. A defining feature of our brain is that it sometimes opens itself up for a makeover above the usual maintenance, called ‘sensitive periods’ and its most potent period is during development, when we are children.
Studies state that various modalities of our brains undergo these periods at different age periods, and sometimes more than once in lifetime. New research postulate the existence of intrinsic timing mechanisms that ‘orchestrate’ critical period plasticity.
But as much important as critical periods are for the development of certain functions, it is not to be confused as a one-shot period that once closed lends permanent change. Our brain IS PLASTIC in its truest sense of meaning. Studies have shown that congenially visually impaired people whose blindness could be treated (They were left blind due to financial or other circumstances), when regain eye-sight in their adulthood still are able to see, showing that there are compensatory mechanisms in place.
References:
- Reh, R. K., Dias, B. G., Nelson, C. A., Kaufer, D., Werker, J. F., Kolb, B., … & Hensch, T. K. (2020). Critical period regulation across multiple timescales. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
