Synaptic Pruning And Mental Illness
Neuroimaging has shown fewer neural connections in the prefrontal brain regions in people diagnosed with mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, than those with neuro-typical brains. Though the research4 is still in its early stages and so the connection is not definite.
The main mental illness that has been looked at in regards to glitchy pruning is schizophrenia . Research2 suggests that people with schizophrenia have a genetic variant that causes their brain to be a little harsh when pruning, leading to over-pruning.
Related: Mental Health and the Importance of Sleep
What Is A Neural Network
This gif shows an up close view of a synapse and how neurotransmitters fire from one dendrite to another. This is how information is sent between neurons in neural networks.
A neural network is a series of connected neurons. Information travels along these networks that enable us to do things. For example, when you see a ball thrown to you and you try to catch it, sensory neurons in your eyes send a signal along a network that connects to your visual and motor cortices in your brain that then send signals to the neurons connected to your arm, hand and finger muscles so you can lift your hands and catch the ball. The more times youve thrown and caught a ball, the more developed this neural network will be and the better baseball player youll become.
This is why bad habits are hard to break you literally have to rewire the networks in your brain and allow the old habits to decay.
Neural networks are connections of neurons that send signals along pathways. The long branchy things in the above image are dendrites on a neuron connecting to other dendrites.
Mechanisms Of Synaptic Pruning
The three models explaining synaptic pruning are axon degeneration, axon retraction, and axon shedding. In all cases, the synapses are formed by a transient axon terminal, and synapse elimination is caused by the axon pruning. Each model offers a different method in which the axon is removed to delete the synapse. In small-scale axon arbor pruning, neural activity is thought to be an important regulator, but the molecular mechanism remains unclear. Hormones and trophic factors are thought to be the main extrinsic factors regulating large-scale stereotyped axon pruning.
Recommended Reading: How To Know If Someone Misses You Psychology
What Is Pruning Adolescent Brain
Inside a teens head. The main adjustment is the pruning away of unused connections in your childs grey matter, which is the part of the brain responsible for thought and processing. Other connections are also strengthened at the same time. Based on the use it or lose it tenet, this is the brains method of improving efficiency.
What Is Pruning In Biology
Pruning explained. Pruning is the term used to describe the careful removal of plant parts to control plant growth. Both science and art go into pruning. The biology of plant growth serves as the sciences foundation, while some artistic judgment is required when deciding which branches to cut and how to shape particular plants.
Also Check: What Can You Do With An Associate’s In Psychology
What Is An Example Of Synaptic Pruning
One of the many changes thought to be taking place in teenagers brains is synaptic pruning. For instance, a 2005 study discovered that teenagers struggle with multitasking because their brains are still developing the capacity to process multiple pieces of information simultaneously like adults can.
How Synaptic Pruning Forms Neural Networks
Unused synapses are pruned, which increases the effectiveness of the more commonly used neural circuits. This is how synaptic pruning helps the formation and connections of other more commonly used neural networks. Its a little bit like throwing out old clothes in your closet that you never wear so youve got more space for your favourite clothes you wear all the time. Or, its like deleting old apps from your phone so the ones you do use run faster.
Synaptic pruning happens most during adolescence, especially the thinning of greymatter in the outer layer of the brain . Grey matter is made from the synaptic connections, cell bodies and dendrites the stuff that makes the neural networks. The pruning helps to improve our cognition and maybe even our IQ because it strengthens other networks. In fact, one study found that children with a faster development of frontal lobe grey matter had higher IQs and this grey matter was also pruned faster than other kids .
A graph showing the grey matter development in adolescents from Sara-Jayne Blakemores excellent TED Talk . Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zVS8HIPUng)
Synaptic pruning is like deleting old apps from your phone so the ones you do use can run faster.
Recommended Reading: Coordinate Algebra Final Exam Study Guide Answer Key
Synaptic Pruning In Psychological Disorders:
There will always be an earlier method of investigating that aims at the association between synaptic pruning and schizophrenia. For instance, when a study found photographs of the brains of schizophrenics, the hypothesis is that schizophrenic brains are excessively trimmed and this over trimming is triggered by random changes that influence the neuronal pruning mechanism. They observed that individuals with psychological illnesses had fewer synaptic connections in the frontal area relative to the brains of people lacking problems like schizophrenia. A major study Reliable Origin then studied and over 100,000 person’s post-mortem nerve cells and DNA and discovered that individuals with schizophrenia have a particular genetic mutation that could be correlated with an enhancement of the synaptic pruning method. To results suggest that irregular synaptic pruning correlates to schizophrenia, further research is required.
What Part Of The Brain Develops First In Adolescence
Scientists have identified a specific region of the brain called the amygdala that is responsible for immediate reactions including fear and aggressive behavior. This region develops early. However, the frontal cortex, the area of the brain that controls reasoning and helps us think before we act, develops later.
You May Like: What Is Reaction Formation In Psychology
The Brain Rewires During Adolescence To Increase Integration And Efficiency
Its not so easy being an adolescent these days. We become aware of the world around us, are flooded with input through digital media about our extended global family, and learn about the worlds intense and overwhelming problems. And even more, pubertys onset is getting earlier, and the time between our childhood dependence and adult responsibility over the last century has moved from a couple of years to a dozen or more.
In my own family life, our two children have now passed through their teenage years. But recent studies of the brain, done at UCLA, the National Institute of Mental Health, and other research institutions, reveal that their adolescence is not over. Longitudinal investigations of individuals going through the period between childhood and adulthood reveal that there is a remodeling of the brain that starts often just before the teen years begin and continues well into the mid-twenties.
For adolescents, this means that the pruning down of existing neurons and the laying down of myelin sheaths connecting the remaining linked neurons will continue years after we stop referring to them as teenagers.
But what is this remodeling all about? Why would nature provide for the rewiring of a brain such that there is the purposeful, genetically governed, and experientially shaped destruction of existing neurons and their synaptic connections?
INSPIRE TO REWIRE is a mark owned by Dr. Daniel J. Siegel and Mind Your Brain, Inc. All rights reserved.
Purpose And Importance Of Pruning
Yes! Pruning keeps trees healthy and strong, but did you know that it also prevents property damage. Without pruning, a weakened tree branch could suddenly take a freefall down to earth on your roof or probably your car. And lets not even talk about it falling on a friendly neighbor or a passerby. You can imagine what that would feel like.
Apart from that, with pruning, you are able to deter any form of animal or pest infestation that could arise from dead and overgrown branches. Now, this should give you a clearer picture as to why pruning is so important for plant health.
Ultimately, with the right pruning methods, it becomes easy for you to create that aesthetic layout or design you have for your landscape. At the end of the day, pruning your trees regularly would help you maintain a beautiful and evergreen landscape.
Also Check: What Are The Branches Of Chemistry
Synaptic Pruning During Childhood
From the time an embryo develops until the age of 2, a tremendous amount of neural connections form. These are the fruit of a child making discoveries and obtaining new knowledge. And after this exponential growth, the initial synaptic pruning and restructuring take place.
This is a programmed process that is necessary when it comes to a childs proper development. However, environment also plays an important role, and its here that education can make a huge difference:
- Babies need to receive adequate stimulation in order for this pruning to take place. If not, theyll maintain an excessive number of connections that will make the brain inefficient. In short, the child will lose capacities.
- The objective of this process is to achieve a better adaptation to the environment. Therefore, influences that come from the exterior will have an impact on which connections remain and which are eliminated. Those that the child utilizes most frequently will get stronger, while those that a child uses less will disappear. Therefore, education will guide this brain remodeling process. The child will keep and strengthen the most developed abilities and areas.
Synaptic Pruning And Its Role In Mental Illness
There are reasons to believe that neural pruning could play a key role in the development of certain disorders. In this respect, Sellgren et al conducted a study on synaptic pruning in patients with schizophrenia. They concluded that excess synaptic pruning can precipitate or produce this disorder.
Similarly, other studies point to the possible role of synaptic pruning in the symptoms of Alzheimers disease. However, since we dont understand how this mechanism works, its not possible to say for sure.
Finally, its suggested that neural pruning could be altered by various factors. For example, age and genetic defects. In fact, if these variables could be identified, it might be possible to regulate the symptoms of certain disorders that are associated with this mechanism.
Also Check: What Is Brazil’s Geography
Mechanism Of Synaptic Pruning:
The brain receives a significant degree of development throughout the infant stages. In neurogenesis, there seems to be an occurrence of synaptic transmission among nerves. This process is referred to as synaptogenesis. In studying, memory development, and the development of early childhood, this rapid phase of synaptic activity serves a fundamental function. The frequency of nerve cells reaches a maximum point at around 2 to 3 years of age. But somehow the brain begins to delete synaptic connections that it no longer wants immediately after this phase of synaptic development. It can either be enhanced or damaged until the brain establishes a synapse. This varies on how much they are using the neuron. In other terms, the approach uses the principles of use or lose it’ more responsive brain cells are reinforced and much less responsive synapses are diminished and eventually trimmed. Throughout that period, the method of eliminating unnecessary synapses is known as synaptic pruning. Our genetics often affect initial synaptic pruning. It’s focused on the observations further on. In other ways, the interactions a growing baby has with the environment surrounding them impact if a synapse is trimmed or not. Constant stimulates brain cells to be fixed and expand. But if a person receives no stimulus, fewer such associations will remain in the brain.
How Does Synaptic Pruning Work
During infancy, the brain experiences a large amount of growth. There is an explosion of synapse formation between neurons during early brain development. This is called synaptogenesis.
This rapid period of synaptogenesis plays a vital role in learning, memory formation, and adaptation early in life. At about 2 to 3 years of age, the number of synapses hits a peak level. But then shortly after this period of synaptic growth, the brain starts to remove synapses that it no longer needs.
Once the brain forms a synapse, it can either be strengthened or weakened. This depends on how often the synapse is used. In other words, the process follows the use it or lose it principle: Synapses that are more active are strengthened, and synapses that are less active are weakened and ultimately pruned. The process of removing the irrelevant synapses during this time is referred to as synaptic pruning.
Early synaptic pruning is mostly influenced by our genes. Later on, its based on our experiences. In other words, whether or not a synapse is pruned is influenced by the experiences a developing child has with the world around them. Constant stimulation causes synapses to grow and become permanent. But if a child receives little stimulation the brain will keep fewer of those connections.
The timing of synaptic pruning varies by brain region. Some synaptic pruning begins very early in development, but the most rapid pruning happens between roughly age 2 and 16.
Recommended Reading: Discovering Geometry Practice Your Skills
Developmental Plasticity: Synaptic Pruning
Over the first few years of life, the brain grows rapidly. As eachneuron matures, it sends out multiple branches , increasing thenumber of synaptic contacts and laying the specific connections fromhouse to house, or in the case of the brain, from neuron to neuron. Atbirth, each neuron in the cerebral cortex has approximately 2,500 synapses. By the time an infant is two or threeyears old, the number of synapses is approximately 15,000 synapses perneuron . This amount is about twice that of theaverage adult brain. As we age, old connections are deleted through aprocess called synaptic pruning.
Synaptic pruning eliminates weaker synaptic contacts while strongerconnections are kept and strengthened. Experience determines whichconnections will be strengthened and which will be pruned connectionsthat have been activated most frequently are preserved. Neurons must havea purpose to survive. Without a purpose, neurons die through a processcalled apoptosis in which neurons that do not receive or transmitinformation become damaged and die. Ineffective or weak connections are”pruned” in much the same way a gardener would prune a tree or bush,giving the plant the desired shape. It is plasticity that enables theprocess of developing and pruning connections, allowing the brain to adaptitself to its environment.
Pruning In The Maturing Brain
The pruning that is associated with learning is known as small-scale axon terminal arbor pruning. Axons extend short axon terminal arbors toward neurons within a target area. Certain terminal arbors are pruned by competition. The selection of the pruned terminal arbors follow the “use it or lose it” principle seen in synaptic plasticity. This means synapses that are frequently used have strong connections while the rarely used synapses are eliminated. Examples seen in vertebrate include pruning of axon terminals in the neuromuscular junction in the peripheral nervous system and the pruning of climbing fiber inputs to the cerebellum in the central nervous system.
In terms of humans, synaptic pruning has been observed through the inference of differences in the estimated numbers of glial cells and neurons between children and adults, which differs greatly in the mediodorsal thalamic nucleus.
In a study conducted in 2007 by Oxford University, researchers compared 8 newborn human brains with those of 8 adults using estimates based upon size and evidence gathered from stereologicalfractionation. They showed that, on average, estimates of adult neuron populations were 41% lower than those of the newborns in the region they measured, the mediodorsal thalamic nucleus.
Recommended Reading: How To Calculate Ihd Organic Chemistry
How Do You Prune A Decision Tree
We can prune our decision tree by using information gain in both post-pruning and pre-pruning. In pre-pruning, we check whether information gain at a particular node is greater than minimum gain. In post-pruning, we prune the subtrees with the least information gain until we reach a desired number of leaves.
Does Synaptic Pruning Explain The Onset Of Schizophrenia
Research that looks at the relationship between synaptic pruning and schizophrenia is still in the early stages. The theory is that schizophrenic brains are over-pruned, and this over-pruning is caused by genetic mutations that affect the synaptic pruning process.
For example, when researchers looked at images of the brains of people with mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, they found that people with mental disorders had fewer synapses in the prefrontal region compared to the brains of people without mental disorders.
Then, a large study analyzed post-mortem brain tissue and DNA from more than 100,000 people and found that people with schizophrenia have a specific gene variant that may be associated with an acceleration of the process of synaptic pruning.
More research is needed to confirm the hypothesis that abnormal synaptic pruning contributes to schizophrenia. While this is still a long way off, synaptic pruning may represent an interesting target for treatments for people with mental disorders.
Unlike research into schizophrenia, which theorizes that the brain is over-pruned, researchers hypothesize that the brains of people with autism may be under-pruned. Theoretically, then, this under-pruning leads to an oversupply of synapses in some parts of the brain.
Also Check: How To Find Magnitude In Physics
Which Brain Hemisphere Develops First
right brain Did you know that the right brain develops first? It does so by the time children are four years of age. The left brain, on the other hand, doesnt fully come online until children are approximately seven years old hence the first seven years being recognized as such a critical period in child development.
Why Does Neural Pruning Happen
It is believed that the purpose of synaptic pruning is to remove unnecessary neuronal structures from the brain as the human brain develops, the need to understand more complex structures becomes much more pertinent, and simpler associations formed at childhood are thought to be replaced by complex structures.
Also Check: What Is Geography In Simple Words