Neuroplasticity

Scientific basis

It operates at several levels: strengthening or weakening of synaptic efficacy (synaptic plasticity, including long-term potentiation and depression), changes in connections, reorganization of networks and of cortical representations. It is also called brain plasticity.

Neuroplasticity underlies learning and recovery after injury, but it can also sustain maladaptive responses: structural and functional reorganizations have been described in some chronic pain conditions.

Blue Portance / SBNFA™ reading

SBNFA™ sees neuroplasticity as the biological mechanism underlying both adaptation and maladaptation. In the SBNFA™ reading, variability and postural exploration are considered conditions likely to support the maintenance or relearning of diversified responses; this effect is not established as a specific consequence of a seating device.

Contribution to the analysis of sitting

Seating analysis does not measure any effect on the nervous system. It describes the repetition and variability of support points and positions, that is, part of the conditions in which the nervous system receives its information.

Not to be confused with

Synaptic plasticity, a particular level of neuroplasticity that concerns synaptic efficacy; neurosensory reprogramming, a Blue Portance functional model of relearning that draws on neuroplasticity without being reduced to it; central sensitization, increased responsiveness of central nociceptive neurons.

Related terms

Neurosensory deprogramming · Chronic pain · Neurosensory reprogramming · Body schema · Central sensitization

Sources and scope

• Pascual-Leone et al. (2005): the plastic human brain cortex (Annual Review of Neuroscience)
• Citri and Malenka (2008): synaptic plasticity, multiple forms, functions and mechanisms (Neuropsychopharmacology)
• Kuner and Flor (2017): structural plasticity and reorganization in chronic pain (Nature Reviews Neuroscience)