RESILIENCY AND NEUROPLASTICITY

The transformation of the Brain through Resiliency and Neuroplasticity Helen Dayan Maldonado Salt Lake Community College

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According to Berger (2010), resiliency is "the capacity to adapt well despite significant adversity and to overcome serious stress." It helps a person bounce back from "serious adversity, like abuse, war or natural disasters" (Bazelon, 2006, p.2). According to Dictionary.com (2013), neuroplasticity is "the brain's natural ability to form new connections in order to compensate for injury or changes in one's environment." Through hardships of life such as child abuse, sexual abuse, chronic stress, or poverty the brain learns to adapt to its surroundings so that it allows the person to not only cope with the situation but also to come out from it with a positive outlook towards life. The brain grows in neurons while it accommodates to its environment; this is showing neuroplasticity. Michael Merzenich said that, "the adult human brain can be trained to accommodate new skills" and that his research is about shaping the machinery of your brainto develop the capacities of your life" (as cited by Nelson, 2006, pp. 27-28). This means that the brain can be shaped according to what a person wants it to focus on in life. At the same time it develops resiliency in order for the individual to keep moving forward in life. One of the ways that resiliency is an adaptive characteristic for humans to posess is that it helps humans come out of a troubling situation in life and lead a successful life despite the adversities they've passed through in their past. Resiliency helps a person to have more self control ( "This Emotional Life," 2011). They can't change their situations but they can change themselves. Managing strong feelings and impulses becomes more capable. People who are resilient learn to form good and stable relationships with adults (Bazelon, 2006). These relationships help them to better develop their resiliency. Through forming stable relationships with adults, they also master communication skills ("This Emotional Life," 2011). Problem

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solving skills are also one of the attributes resiliency comes with; however, the most important aspect of all is that resilient people attain a positive image of themselves and focus on their strengths ("This Emotional Life," 2011).

Researches from science found that the gene 5-HTT has two alleles; one short and the other long. Depending on the size of the allele a person has, the gene helps encourage resiliency in the individual that may be struggling in a certain situation; however, if the person is not troubled by his or her surroundings then that gene is not activated. The allele that helps with resilience is the long one (Bazelon, 2006). If a two long alleles are found in a person's genes, then they have the capacity to be more resilient struggling through oppressing circumstances. Evidence for the genetic basis of resiliency was discovered through Rhesus monkeys (Bazelon, 2006)The motherless monkeys that were peer-raised and had a short allele in their DNA were more likely to experience fear, panic and aggression when a strange monkey is placed next to them. On the contrary, motherless monkeys with two long alleles treated the strange monkey as other raised monkeys did (Bazelon, 2006). According to Bazelon (2006), "Scientists have determined that 5-HTT is critical for the regulation of serotonin to the brain. Proper regulation of serotonin helps promote well-being and protects against depression in response to trauma or stress" (p. 3).

This article was worth reading because I learned more about the true meaning of resiliency and how it affects my brain depending on what is occurring in my surroundings. The reaction of inside of my body responds proportionately to what happens on the outside. This article made me wonder if I had a version of the short allele or the long one. As I look at my past experiences but I have never really been through an abuse that would scar my future

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development. However, the betrayals and put downs that I have been through takes me more time to bounce back from than it is for my sister who also experienced the same betrayals. I don't recover immediately; however I have managed to move on. I better relate to La Tanya from the article " A Question of Resilience" by Emily Bazelon. She had resentment towards her mother and wasn't as easily to forgive her, as her sister did, for her abusive past. In the same manner, I tend to hold grudges for too long. Yet this doesn't mean that a person cannot be resilient. A person with a short allele may have more trouble to overcome difficult obstacles in life but it's not impossible to be resilient.

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References Berger, K. S. (2010). Invitation to the life Span. New York, NY: Worth. Bazelon, E. (2006). A question of resilience. The New York Times, 1-8. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/magazine/30abuse.html?_r=1&sq= Neuroplasticity. (n.d.). Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon. Retrieved November 14, 2013, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Neuroplasticity This Emotional Life. (2011). What is resilience? Retrieved from

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http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/topic/resilience/what-resilience