The never-ending process of adaptation

Perfusionists typically perform the task of substituting the function of heart and lungs by means of cardiopulmonary bypass.In doing so, different organs of the body are affected as well, and one of those is the brain.The brain is a marvelous, complex structure, and recent discoveries reveal ever-growing insights into its function and how it is being influenced by what is happening in the rest of our body and vice versa.While it was long thought that the brain was a static entity, we now know that it continually undertakes functional and structural reorganizations to adapt itself to influences from outside, referred to as neuroplasticity.Occupational neuroplasticity is a branch of that science that relates to neuroplasticity influenced by the daily work and activities that we do (1).Through advanced imaging techniques, researchers have discovered that those functional changes happen in specific regions of the brain (1, 2), and that structural reorganization is dependent on the complexity of, and the experience with the tasks related to the occupation (3).Literally, more experienced perfusionists have more gray matter.Unfortunately, it is also seen that prolonged unhealthy stress and malpractice can lead to maladaptive changes, resulting in pathologic conditions (1, 2).In that perspective, neuroplasticity almost behaves like the immune system, which protects us, but can lead to pathologic conditions in a similar way, when overstimulated or uninhibited.Knowing that, we can assume that perfusionists, who are constantly adapting to new techniques, lifelong learning and especially, acute changes in a patient condition, must