Resilience Or Plasticity, a Battle of Nature Vs. Nurture

BATTLE OF NATURE VS. NURTURE 2

Resilience or Plasticity, a Battle of Nature Vs. Nurture

Mario Facio

Salt Lake City Community College

Nature versus nurture is one of the oldest debates in academia, many people believe humans learn everything from the environment. John Locke a famous philosopher once stated a theory called "Tabula Rasa" which means blank slate. In tabula rasa Locke explains the mind of humans is a blank slate and as we grow older we learn ideas from our surroundings and we build on those ideas (Uzgalis, 2001). Plasticity would fall into the concept of nurture. On the other spectrum of the argument, Charles Darwin comes in with his "Theory of Evolution" that states humans have evolved by natural selection, and that any trait a human has was an evolution from past humans that had a mutation that helped them survive. So resiliency is a trait passed down in our genes that help us survive in nature.

To understand the battle between resilience and plasticity both terms must be defined, resiliency is the ability to cope with problems such as natural disasters, illness, or the death of a loved one(Cherry, 2014). Resiliency seems to be more nature because some people have better resiliency then others. Plasticity is the ability for the brain to change its structure as a result of experiences, or new ideas learned(Cherry, 2012). Plasticity seems to be nurture, depending on what you experience in your life, is how your brain is going to form.

In the article A Question of Resilience, resiliency is an adaptive characteristic humans should possess because having the ability to cope with stressful situations is beneficial to the overall wellness of the individual. If an individual cannot cope with stressful situations, the person is prone to depression. Michael Rutter, a resilience expert opened a gene and environment research center that looked at both aspect, one after another. Terrie Moffitt and her husband Avashalom Caspi made a connection between a gene( 5-HTT), and childhood maltreatment that caused depression. Scientist found out that 5-HTT was very important for the regulation of chemicals in the brain like serotonin(Bazelon, 2006). Serotonin is a neurotransmitter, a chemical that allows nerve impulses to be transferred across the space between nerve cells or synapses. According to Bristol University in England, serotonin is involved with sleep, memory, mood, depression, cardiovascular functions, and even in learning( Nordqvist, 2013). In humans, each 5-HTT gene has two alleles and each allele occurs in short or long version. People with at least one short allele are more prone to suffer from depression, and depression has be associated with unemployment, poor health, bad relationships, and substance abuse (Bazelon). There was a study done by Stephen Suomi, that involved 500 rhesus monkeys. Every year when monkeys were born his team would separate them into different groups. One group would go with their mother. The other group would be separated from their mothers and put into an incubator until two weeks old, then the baby monkey would be put in a pen with group of peers. Rhesus monkeys share 96 percent of their genes with humans including long and short 5-HTT gene. Suomi found out that motherless, peer-raised monkeys who have a short allele are more prone to experience fear, panic, aggression and low levels of serotonin when introduced with a stranger. On the other hand motherless, peer-raised monkeys with two long alleles are more likely to cope with a stranger like mother-raised monkeys do(Bazelon). If nature gives you genes like the two short versions of the allele, that doesn't condemn you depression and a horrible life. There are other factors involved such as the environment you grow up in, if any role models are present to help you vent your emotions and the type of personality you are.

According to the article A Learning Machine: Plasticity and Change Throughout Life, plasticity is the ability of the brain to infinitely adapt from earliest infancy through the latest adulthood. Gregg Recanzone, at the University of California, created an experiment with owl monkeys. Recanzone exposed the monkeys to two tones and decreasing the difference between them over time. After several weeks of conditioning, the monkeys' auditory sensitivity sharpened and they were able to distinguish between noises that were indistinguishable at the beginning(Nelson, 2006). Michael Merenich of the University of California at San Francisco has been researching plasticity between elderly people. Adult brains use plasticity for a purpose, for example professional musician train their brains to recognize absolute pitches, while mechanic's brains can be trained to distinguish different types of rumbles from a troubled car. Merenich explains in childhood, children have a "anything-goes plasticity" that allows children to sort massive amounts of data from the world. He explains that once the individual masters a skill the brain will change(Nelson). Sir Michaeal Rutter and his associates followed behavioral development of children who were adopted from Romanian orphanages by UK families after the end of the Ceausescu regime. Rutter evaluated the children when they were adopted, and continued the study at four, six, and eleven years. Rutter found that most children we so deprived of learning, emotional connection with others that most children were mentally retarded, but by age eleven they were nearly normal. According to Rutter there was variation between the time the children spent in the orphanages. The longer a child was in the orphanage, the child had more severe and longer-lasting deficits. Overall Rutter found that plasticity vary from child to child, the individual brain will respond to similar experiences in completely different ways(Nelson). For example at an intersection there is a big car crash and the police arrive and start to as the witnesses what they saw, the police will compile different statements because people experienced the crash differently then drivers or people on the opposite side of the street.

In conclusion resilience or plasticity, nature or nurture, it does not matter which gene you have for controlling your serotonin or it does not matter what nurture you had a child, people can still grow up to be normal contributors of society. It all depends on how you grow up from the situation and surround yourself with people that can help you deal with the struggles of life.

Bazelon, E. (2006, April 29). A Question of Resilience. The New York Times. Retrieved , from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/magazine/30abuse.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Cherry, K. (2014, January 1). What Is Resilience? (And Why It Matters). About.com Psychology. Retrieved, from http://psychology.about.com/od/crisiscounseling/a/resilience.htm

Cherry, K. (2012, July 6). Brain Plasticity - Psychology Definition of the Week. About.com Psychology. Retrieved , from http://psychology.about.com/b/2012/07/06/brain-plasticity-psychology-definition-of-the-week.htm

Nelson, L. (2006). A learning machine: Plasticity and change throughout life. APS Observer (pp 27-28).

Nordqvist, C. (2013, November 3). "What is serotonin? What does serotonin do?." Medical News Today. Retrieved from
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/232248.

Uzgalis, W. (2001, September 2). John Locke. Stanford University. Retrieved , from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/