The capacity for being molded or shaped, as in a developmental level where there is a potential for change, human plasticity.
Literally, the ability to be molded, such as in a warmed plastic compound. In neurology, refers to changes in nerve synapse function that can occur as a result of the history of discharge at a synapse. Conduction can be strengthened or weakened on the basis of past experience. These changes are important in current studies of learning and memory. Plasticity has also been demonstrated in the brain. For example, if an arm is amputated, sensory nerve fibers serving other areas of the body grow into the area that contained nerve fibers serving the amputated arm. This explains why some individuals who have had an arm amputated may feel sensations as though the arm is still present when other areas of the body, such as the face, are stroked. Recent data indicate that similar, but less well defined, phenomena also occur in the motor nerve cells of the brain.