ABSTRACT

The term neuroplasticity can refer to an enormous range of neural processes, from cellular development and axonal outgrowth early in life, to pathological events in old age. The subject of this chapter is the relation between adaptive behavioral change that results from experience and a particular class of neuroplastic phenomena. In broad terms, this is the relation between learning and memory, and the neural changes that might underlie them. For this chapter, neuroplasticity is defined as synaptic change that underlies learning.