Running head: RESILIENCY & NEUROPLASTICITY

Resiliency & Neuroplasticity Ian Schuster Salt Lake Community College

RESILIENCY & NEUROPLASTICITY

Resiliency is the capacity to adapt well despite significant adversity and to overcome serious stress, (Berger, 2010) There are three things to know about resiliency. It is dynamic, meaning that the person who possesses resiliency can only use it in certain situations. It may be effective in one situation and not so in another. Two, resiliency is a positive adaption to the world, if a child goes through sexual abuse at a young age and they grow up to have a normal life and are by psychologists terms successful then it is positive. It is never used in a negative context, it is only a positive adaption. Third, the problems the person faces must be serious and likely overwhelms their peers. These problems are usually uncommon and dont happen to every child on the block, such as sexual abuse, kidnapping, physical abuse to name a few. Resiliency usually exists with a higher than average IQ, and an easy going temperament but not always (Berger, 2010). Social support also plays a large role in the childs development, having at least one positive relationship with an adult may amplify resiliency. In terms of child development, there is another concept often talked about called neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the ability of neurons and their networks in the brain to change their connections and behavior to respond to the environment. In other words you can teach an old brain new tricks (Honan). Many years ago this concept didnt exist it was thought that when the brain finished developing that it stayed the same. Doctors have discovered that the brain can essentially reformat itself to optimize itself and adapt. The fact that the brain can change itself or bounce back from severe events is an adaptive characteristic. If we can rewire our brain to adapt to a different culture then we can change to be more effective in that setting.

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Neuroplasticity and Resiliency in the lifespan is a very important discovery, with the brains ability to be resistant to some events and then have the capacity to format itself at the individuals own will is an extreme advantage. Over the course of a lifetime there are countless times when the brain might have changed itself to adapt. Imagine the mind as a snowy hill, on that hill there are ruts in the snow, and as you go down the hill, those ruts get deeper. Imagine this is how the brain thinks. These are the sets of neurons firing in a string. Thinking follows down these ruts, and plasticity is changing these channels or ruts. The longer youve been in the same behavior the harder it is to change. I think this explains why it is easier for children to adapt more quickly than adults, because the ruts are deeper in adults due to the behavior being repeated over an extended duration. It is possible to navigate out of those ruts if you can realize your behavior before going too far down the rut. If you catch yourself thinking in a similar way and would like to change the behavior, you catch it in action and then detour the line of thinking. The concept of resiliency is how deep these ruts are. Some ruts are may be too hard to defer from and this might explain how someone can be resilient or even invincible to some circumstances out of their control. The genetic relationship regarding resiliency is focused around a gene by the name of 5HTT. 5-HTT is related with the regulation of serotonin. This gene has two alleles, one long and one short. The short allele appears to make people more likely to fall into depression, while the long allele is just the opposite. There was a study conducted and the results showed that children with two short alleles would usually fall short, while having two long alleles faired well in the

RESILIENCY & NEUROPLASTICITY given circumstance. Two long alleles, on the other hand, gave their carriers a good chance of bouncing back under negative circumstances. (EMILY BAZELON)

This assignment has had a large impact on my perspective of my own development. I have read a few books to get an idea of what changes you can make to your life by changing your thinking. I think it means that with enough persistence you can change almost anything about yourself. Your behaviors, values, and habits, everything about yourself can be changed. Im not sure of the limit of how much you can change and adapt to maybe be less socially awkward or be more assertive in your social life. Im drawn the social context of neuroplasticity, I have struggled with some social aspects in the past, but some of the behavior still needs work. For example, I went out with some old high school friends a while back. I had kept up with them over social media and text message but only few a far between. When I went to see them, my brain automatically fell back into the old quiet and shy former self. I was aware of what was going on but it was difficult to control at that moment. It feels like it is easy to fall back into those old ruts, only time will tell if they eventually fade into nothingness or will always be there. I thought it might have been that I went the wrong way of changing myself or that I needed to go and be with them more and force my mind to change in their presence to get the full effect. My theory is that they will go away for good.

RESILIENCY & NEUROPLASTICITY Reference Page

Berger, K. (2010). Invitation to the life span. New York: Worth Publishers. Emily Bazelon. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/magazine/30abuse.html?_r=2&sq=& Feder A., Nestler E. J., Charney D. S. (2009). Psychobiology and molecular genetics of resilience. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 10 446457.10.1038/nrn2649 Honan, D. (0). Retrieved from http://bigthink.com/think-tank/brain-exercise