Neuroplasticity In Adulthood

Introduction
The brain as an organ is designed to change and grow in response to stimulus and experience. Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to reorganize itself, mostly by reorganizing synaptic connections. Dr. Nandini Mundkur explains neuroplasticity in children as the ability of brains to make functional and structural changes to the brain through training and experience (Mundkur 2005). Neuroplasticity in adults has been thoroughly studied in adult musicians. It has been shown that anterior corpus callosum areas are larger in professional musicians [who began their musical training before the age of seven years old] than in non-musicians; however, studies have not been done to determine whether the difference was pre-existing or
T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (voxel size: 0.93 x 0.93 x 1.5 mm) was used to measure the size of the corpus callosum. The total midsagittal callosal area and seven midsagittal subareas were determined by a blind observer and all measurements were corrected for total brain volume. Of the seven callosal subareas identified, only areas three to six were included in data collection. These four areas contain fibres that project to sensory and motor cortical regions and could therefore plausibly affected by musical instrument training. Areas one, two, and seven were excluded because they were unlikely to be affected by musical
Practice intensity (hours practiced per week) predicted improvement in motor performance for both dominant and non-dominant hands.
Critical Analysis
The design of this study was precise enough that the researchers were able to examine the specific changes and effects they were interested in. This was accomplished in two ways: firstly, the researches excluded data from their original analyses that was irrelevant – or likely to be irrelevant – to the study; secondly, the design was based on pre-existing data and modeled after previous studies that had been successful in testing similar phenomena.
In order to ensure that the researchers were testing the hypothesis they had set out to test, any extraneous data was excluded. As is explained in the section of the methods of the original paper, the researchers excluded measurement data pertaining to subareas one, two, and seven because any changes they found in these areas were unlikely to be caused by the experimental condition (i.e. musical instruction). This is exemplary of the amount of planning and detail the researchers put into designing their