Neural Plasticity

Neuroplasticity and Healthy Lifestyle: How Can We Understand This Relationship?


Status
Published

Lead Editor

1Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain

2Universidad de Málaga, Malaga, Spain

3Fundación Instituto Leloir, Buenos Aires, Argentina

4University of Rome, Rome, Italy

5Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain


Neuroplasticity and Healthy Lifestyle: How Can We Understand This Relationship?

Description

Our brain has this extraordinary ability to experience both functional and structural changes in response to environmental stimuli, cognitive demands, or our own experience. This property is known as neuroplasticity, which has been one of the main topics in the Neuroscience field in recent years. Among these changes, there are processes such as forming neurons and glial cells, new synaptic connections, axons elongation, and new dendritic spines. Thus, neuroplasticity implies complex mechanisms, involving a wide number of agents needed in order to strengthen brain plasticity.

It is currently known that not only do high-demand cognitive activities (learning a new language, playing a musical instrument, or reading) benefit brain functioning, but also other activities, such as physical activity, have a protective effect over both the cardiovascular and nervous systems. Further, dietary elements like omega 3 appear to positively impact the brain, thus stimulating an improvement of cognitive functions, such as memory.

The term “brain fitness” is becoming popular in our society and is associated with certain lifestyle and activities that promote beneficial effects in the brain, creating a brain reserve which appears to delay age-related neurodegenerative diseases, for example, Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s dementia. These findings suggest that contemporary research should focus on a deeper understanding of neuroplasticity mechanisms and how different activities shape our brain.

We therefore invite authors to contribute their research as well as review articles about neuroplasticity processes, especially related to how our lifestyle can modify this plasticity. Neuroplastic alterations have therapeutic effect on cognitive function like attention, memory, or executive function, after brain damage, ageing, and various mental diseases, and we are also interested in papers that focus on this area.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

  • Molecular/electrophysiological mechanisms involved in neuroplasticity responses
  • Lifestyle, cognitive reserve, and brain reserve
  • Nonpharmacological interventions aiming to reduce stress responses and stimulate resilience
  • Effects of ageing, neurodegenerative diseases, and mental disorders on neuroplasticity
  • Therapeutic use of neuroplasticity
  • Recent advances in neuroplasticity and their application in an educational field

Articles

  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2017
  • - Article ID 9506181
  • - Editorial

Neuroplasticity and Healthy Lifestyle: How Can We Understand This Relationship?

Azucena Begega | Luis J. Santín | ... | Patricia Sampedro-Piquero
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2017
  • - Article ID 2631909
  • - Research Article

Acute Exercise and Neurocognitive Development in Preadolescents and Young Adults: An ERP Study

Chien-Heng Chu | Arthur F. Kramer | ... | Yu-Kai Chang
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2017
  • - Article ID 8305287
  • - Clinical Study

Exercise Promotes Neuroplasticity in Both Healthy and Depressed Brains: An fMRI Pilot Study

Joanne Gourgouvelis | Paul Yielder | Bernadette Murphy
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2017
  • - Article ID 1546125
  • - Review Article

Enkephalins: Endogenous Analgesics with an Emerging Role in Stress Resilience

Mathilde S. Henry | Louis Gendron | ... | Guy Drolet
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2017
  • - Article ID 7219461
  • - Review Article

Environmental Factors Promoting Neural Plasticity: Insights from Animal and Human Studies

Laura Mandolesi | Francesca Gelfo | ... | Giuseppe Sorrentino
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2017
  • - Article ID 3589271
  • - Review Article

Lifestyle Modulators of Neuroplasticity: How Physical Activity, Mental Engagement, and Diet Promote Cognitive Health during Aging

Cristy Phillips
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2017
  • - Article ID 3480413
  • - Research Article

Exercise Modality Is Differentially Associated with Neurocognition in Older Adults

Yu-Kai Chang | I-Hua Chu | ... | Ai-Guo Chen
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2017
  • - Article ID 2038573
  • - Review Article

Nonpharmacological Interventions in Targeting Pain-Related Brain Plasticity

Maral Tajerian | J. David Clark
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2017
  • - Article ID 5196958
  • - Research Article

The Rapid Effect of Bisphenol-A on Long-Term Potentiation in Hippocampus Involves Estrogen Receptors and ERK Activation

Xiaowei Chen | Yu Wang | ... | Qinwen Wang
Neural Plasticity
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Acceptance rate12%
Submission to final decision134 days
Acceptance to publication26 days
CiteScore5.700
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Impact Factor3.1
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