Dataset Information

Neural correlates of sequence encoding in visuomotor learning.

ABSTRACT: To examine the neural basis of sequence learning, a fundamental but poorly understood human ability, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) while subjects viewed and memorized randomly directed sequences of motions for later imitation. Previously, we found that the amplitude of ERPs elicited by successive motion segments decreased as a function of each segment's serial position. This happened when subjects were required to remember the sequence, but not when they were performing a perceptual task. Here, to study the functional significance of this amplitude gradient in sequence learning, we presented each sequence several times in succession and examined changes in ERP amplitude as subjects learned the sequence through repeated observation and imitation. Behaviorally, with each repetition subjects grew more accurate in reproducing what they had seen. At the same time, ERPs grew smaller with each successive presentation, replicating and extending previous demonstrations of repetition suppression. Importantly, a comparison of ERPs to segments occupying different serial positions within a sequence revealed a decreasing amplitude gradient that grew steeper with sequence repetition. This sharpening of the amplitude gradient may reflect an explicit encoding process that relies on a magnitude code for serial order.

SUBMITTER: Agam Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2887627 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Neural correlates of sequence encoding in visuomotor learning.

Agam Yigal Y Huang Jie J Sekuler Robert R

Journal of neurophysiology 20100113 3

To examine the neural basis of sequence learning, a fundamental but poorly understood human ability, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) while subjects viewed and memorized randomly directed sequences of motions for later imitation. Previously, we found that the amplitude of ERPs elicited by successive motion segments decreased as a function of each segment's serial position. This happened when subjects were required to remember the sequence, but not when they were performing a perceptua ...[more]

PMID: 20071631

Similar Datasets

Project description:The neural correlates of memory formation in humans have long been investigated by exposing subjects to diverse material and comparing responses to items later remembered to those forgotten. Tasks requiring memorization of sensory sequences afford unique possibilities for linking neural memorization processes to behavior, because, rather than comparing across different items of varying content, each individual item can be examined across the successive learning states of being initially unknown, newly learned, and eventually, fully known. Sequence learning paradigms have not yet been exploited in this way, however. Here, we analyze the event-related potentials of subjects attempting to memorize sequences of visual locations over several blocks of repeated observation, with respect to pre- and post-block recall tests. Over centro-parietal regions, we observed a rapid P300 component superimposed on a broader positivity, which exhibited distinct modulations across learning states that were replicated in two separate experiments. Consistent with its well-known encoding of surprise, the P300 deflection monotonically decreased over blocks as locations became better learned and hence more expected. In contrast, the broader positivity was especially elevated at the point when a given item was newly learned, i.e., started being successfully recalled. These results implicate the Broad Positivity in endogenously-driven, intentional memory formation, whereas the P300, in processing the current stimulus to the degree that it was previously uncertain, indexes the cumulative knowledge thereby gained. The decreasing surprise/P300 effect significantly predicted learning success both across blocks and across subjects. This presents a new, neural-based means to evaluate learning capabilities independent of verbal reports, which could have considerable value in distinguishing genuine learning disabilities from difficulties to communicate the outcomes of learning, or perceptual impairments, in a range of clinical brain disorders.

Project description:Experiencing insight when solving problems can improve memory formation for both the problem and its solution. The underlying neural processes involved in this kind of learning are, however, thus far insufficiently understood. Here, we conceptualized insight as the sudden understanding of a novel relationship between known stimuli that fits into existing knowledge and is accompanied by a positive emotional response. Hence, insight is thought to comprise associative novelty, schema congruency, and intrinsic reward, all of which are separately known to enhance memory performance. We examined the neural correlates of learning from induced insight with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) using our own version of the compound-remote-associates-task (CRAT) in which each item consists of three clue words and a solution word. (Pseudo-)Solution words were presented after a brief period of problem-solving attempts to induce either sudden comprehension (CRA items) or continued incomprehension (control items) at a specific time point. By comparing processing of the solution words of CRA with control items, we found induced insight to elicit activation of the rostral anterior cingulate cortex/medial prefrontal cortex (rACC/mPFC) and left hippocampus. This pattern of results lends support to the role of schema congruency (rACC/mPFC) and associative novelty (hippocampus) in the processing of induced insight. We propose that (1) the mPFC not only responds to schema-congruent information, but also to the detection of novel schemata, and (2) that the hippocampus responds to a form of associative novelty that is not just a novel constellation of familiar items, but rather comprises a novel meaningful relationship between the items-which was the only difference between our insight and no insight conditions. To investigate episodic long-term memory encoding, we compared CRA items whose solution word was recognized 24 h after encoding to those with forgotten solutions. We found activation in the left striatum and parts of the left amygdala, pointing to a potential role of brain reward circuitry in the encoding of the solution words. We propose that learning from induced insight mainly relies on the amygdala evaluating the internal value (as an affective evaluation) of the suddenly comprehended information, and striatum-dependent reward-based learning.

Dataset Information

Neural correlates of sequence encoding in visuomotor learning.

Publications

Neural correlates of sequence encoding in visuomotor learning.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets