Acute brain injuries cause rapid cell death that activates bidirectional crosstalks between the injured brain and the immune system. In the acute phase, the damaged central nervous system (CNS) activates resident and circulating immune cells via the local and systemic release of soluble mediators. This early immune activation is necessary to confine the injured tissue and foster the clearance of cellular debris, which would ultimately bring the inflammatory reaction to a close. In the chronic phase, a sustained immune activation is described in many CNS disorders, and the degree of this prolonged response has variable effects on the spontaneous brain regenerative processes. The challenge for treating acute CNS damages is to understand how to optimally engage and modify these immune responses, thus providing new strategies that will compensate for tissue lost to injury. Here we have reviewed the available information about the role and function of the innate and adaptive immune responses in influencing CNS plasticity during the acute and chronic phases of recovery after injury. We have examined how CNS damage evolves along the activation of main cellular and molecular pathways that ultimately are associated to intrinsic repair, neuronal functional plasticity and facilitation of tissue reorganization.