Gal Ben-Zvi

PI: Prof. Yaniv Assaf

The Connectone Plasticity Project

Project description

Brain plasticity, the ability of the brain to change and adapt to new environments, learning of new tasks or cognitive experience is one of the most studied topics in neuroscience. Although believed to be highly important for multi-regional cognitive integration, the mechanism by which system-level reorganization following cognitive experience occurs is far from being understood.

We wish to demonstrate that network regulation mechanisms accompany micro-structural brain changes following neuroplasticity, specifically in controlled motor sequence learning tasks. We hypothesize that neuroplasticity in a specific cognitive domain will execute a cascade of network changes to balance the overall cost efficiency properties of the brain, in a way that sub-components of the brain network undergo opposite changes in their connectivity strength.

In the “Connectome Plasticity” project we will investigate the manifestation of plasticity in the brain by using advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), allowing the representation of several different aspects of connectivity throughout the brain (e.g. structural, functional).

As this work will focus on motor-sequence learning, we wish to highlight the mechanism by which the brain network reorganizes following extensive sport activity and define individual network properties that may predict the ability of the brain to change following practice.

About me

I received my BSc in Biology and Psychology with an emphasis on Neuroscience in 2019 from the Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University. During my bachelor’s degree I worked as a research assistant at Prof. Yaniv Assaf’s lab and was exposed to the evolving field of connectomics and the representation of the brain as a network. 

I’ve started the direct PhD program in the Sagol School of Neuroscience in October 2019. My PhD is focused on networks’ plasticity in response to different interventions, as can be measured via advanced MRI methodologies, each offering a different perspective on brain connectivity. 

More specifically, I wish to investigate networks’ dynamics, i.e the local vs. global balance that is required to be kept, and maintained by plasticity, during adaptation to new environments and acquisition of new skills. To do so, I conduct a research where subjects learn complex motor skills (climbing, swimming and martial arts), and explore changes that occur in the local (motor) network in relevance to the global (whole-brain) network.