Is Neuroplasticity Promoted by Task Complexity?(Ml Roberts Prize Winner) (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Neuroplasticity is the brain's potential to adapt its structural and functional organisation as a result of experience (Nudo 2006). These adaptations span a continuum from short term improvements in the synaptic efficiency of neurons to long term changes in structural organisation of the nervous system (Shumway-Cook and Woollacott 2001). For many years it was thought that the central nervous system had little or no capacity for adaptation. However, scientific advances in the past twenty years suggest otherwise. Evidence of neuroplasticity is provided by research that demonstrates changes in neural connections and cortical representation in response to increases or decreases in sensory and motor input (Cohen et al 1991, Karni et al 1995, Liepert et al 1995, Pascual-Leone and Torres 1993). It is now recognized that much of the improvement seen during motor learning reflects neuroplasticity in both healthy people and those with pathology (Ploughman 2002).