Understanding Your Child's Nervous System: Neuroplasticity
Our nervous system takes in information from our senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, touch, smell, and proprioception).
Once that information comes in, the brain processes it and should produce a healthy response.
However, our senses don’t just tell our brain about the world around us, they also drive the development of new brain connections in important ways.
Think back to when you learned how to ride a bike or some similar task.
Once you learned how you could jump on that bike at any moment, even years later, and still know how to ride a bike.
That's because your brain is neuroplastic.
Meaning that the brain creates and strengthens neurological pathways based on how we use our brain and body.
So if you keep doing something over and over, your brain learns and strengthens that pathway to make it easier to perform that task again later.
However, if the brain is not getting accurate sensory information from the body, it can actually cause significant neurological problems.
That's because it will now use distorted information to create distorted pathways.
Dr. Robert Melillo in his book Disconnected Kids frames it perfectly:
“The senses and the processes that stimulate the brain are closely entwined. Although the brain is able to provide a certain amount of stimulation on its own (dreaming is the best example) it is mostly dependent on outside sources to spark neural growth (new brain connections). The outside sources of natural environmental stimuli on which the brain depends are: light, sound or vibration, odor, taste, temperature, touch, pressure, and gravity.”
The Brain that Changes Itself - Documentary
Neuroplasticity
The wondrous ability of the brain to adapt and change is called neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity is the process of the nervous system rewiring to make new connections.
The concept of neuroplasticity tells us that the brain changes structurally and functionally based upon our experiences.
The more we do a particular activity such as driving a car or swinging a golf club, the more the brain creates stronger connections and pathways which make that activity even easier.
The process of the brain making new connections is how we learn any new skill or activity.
While these changes are often good and make life easier, the brain can also create connections that are less than ideal.
The brain may actually create negative pathways that perpetuate undesirable habits or neurophysiological functioning.
This concept and process of neuroplasticity actually holds great hope for those with neurodevelopmental disorders.
It means that there is great room for improvement by improving the information the brain receives.
This is why so many approaches such as occupational therapy, chiropractic and music therapy are so beneficial.
While many approaches are aimed at giving the brain more appropriate information, chiropractic’s goal is removing interference to the information as it is being transmitted to the brain.
This is one of the major reasons we see such great improvement in the health and function of the children we see in our practice.
When we clear the neurological stress from the system, the individual's body and brain are now able to make better sense of their environment and respond appropriately.
A stressed nervous system is like sitting in rush hour traffic on the freeway.
Chiropractic clears the traffic allowing those critical messages to get to where they need to go!