plasticity

The brain's ability to learn comes from "plasticity," in which neurons constantly edit and remodel the tiny connections called synapses that they make with other neurons to form circuits.

Her team also has found that reduced myelin plasticity contributes to "chemo-fog," the cognitive impairments that often follow cancer treatment.

One mechanism underlying treatment resistance may be the plasticity of cancer cells: they can change their degree of differentiation and revert to a stem cell-like state, which helps them avoid the effects of hormonal therapies.

A similar phenomenon may occur in the human brain, which has more plasticity early in life, and can easily learn to identify objects based on their luminance alone.

"When the cichlids were young, they had this huge plasticity and were able to alter their physiology in order to cope with the turbid environmental conditions," Tiarks said.