plasticity

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Scientists have previously linked SRF to plasticity, a term for brain change that includes both learning and memory and the general ability of the brain to rewire itself to adapt to injury or changing needs.

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Definitions (5)

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  1. The property of being plastic, The property of giving form or shape to matter. To show further that this protoplasm possesses the necessary properties of a normal protoplasm, it will be necessary to examine … what these properties are. They are two in number, the capacity for life and plasticity. H. Drummond, Natural Law in the Spiritual World, p. 299.
  2. Capability of being molded, formed, or modeled. The race must at a certain time have a definite amount of plasticity—that is, a definite power of adapting itself to altered circumstances by changing in accordance with them. W. K. Clifford, Lectures, I. 102. Some natures are distinguished by plasticity or the power of acquisition, and therefore realise more closely the saying that man is a bundle of habits. A. Bain, Emotions and Will, p. 473.
  3. Latent plasticity the property of viscous flow which rocks develop, when buried so deep within the earth as to be under a load greater than their crushing resistance at the surface, and yet so tightly confined that they can only yield by flowage. Geikie, Textbook of Geol., p. 396.

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Examples (48)

  • With brain plasticity, the brain was thought to be more or less fixed. —  Matthieu Ricard on the habits of happiness
  • Mounting evidence suggests that long-term plasticity in pain signaling pathways underpins the pathogenesis of NeP. —  CiteULike: Everyone's library
  • Inflammatory responses in injured nerves have been recognized as important events initially sensitizing nociceptive neurons and subsequently inducing long-term plasticity in the dorsal root ganglion. —  CiteULike: Everyone's library
  • Scientists have previously linked SRF to plasticity, a term for brain change that includes both learning and memory and the general ability of the brain to rewire itself to adapt to injury or changing needs. —  Health News from Medical News Today
  • But there is a more subtle form of adaptation called phenotypic plasticity which is used to describe how animals use the genes they have to change their behavior. —  Wired Top Stories
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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (1)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = French plasticité = Spanish plasticidad = Portuguese plasticidade; as plastic + -ity.
 

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