ABSTRACT
Just as Nobel laureate, Rita Levi-Montalcini found it challenging to change perspectives in the field of developmental neurobiology to accept the phenomenon of cell death, researchers in the field of aging and neurobiology have experienced resistance in promoting the occurrence of brain plasticity in older organisms. Until the late 20th century, investigators did not include adult or older animals in their brain plasticity studies because they thought it was useless to even test plasticity in older organisms. This reluctance to investigate the effect of aging in studies of brain plasticity attests to the degree to which scientists form premature conclusions about adaptation in the older nervous system.
