Neuroplasticity and learning
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1
INCM-CNRS and Université de la Méditerranée, ISB, France
Neural plasticity in relation to experience (i.e. learning) is one of the fundamental aspects of brain plasticity. It allows us and other animal species to acquire new perceptual and cognitive skills, to keep in memory tremendous knowledge, and overall to develop new behavioral capacities. Learning dependent plasticity leads to synaptic changes, both quantitatively and qualitatively (change in synaptic efficacy). These synaptic changes have consequences on information processing, which can be measured at single neuronal electric activity, and at the level of populations of neurons as well as large brain networks. This talk will attempt to link these different levels. I will address the results of recent studies in monkeys and human subjects that demonstrate that neurons and brain networks change during visuomotor skill learning. First, I will present the learning paradigm used, and present neurophysiological data showing that single neuronal activity changes during learning, and does so in one of two ways: (1) in one set of neurons recorded from the striatum (the major nucleus of the basal ganglia) the firing rate is highest early during learning, when the correct solution is not known, and it decreases as learning takes place. This change might reflect working memory. (2) In another set of neurons recorded from the same structure, the activity is weak early in learning and increases progressively as learning occurs. These changes are attributed to consolidation of correct, rewarded behavior, which leads to the storage of learned behavior in long term memory. In another series of experiments conducted in healthy human subjects using brain imaging techniques, with the same experimental protocol as in monkeys, we have shown that the basal ganglia and the cerebral cortex divide the labor during learning, with specific coding of errors and rewards in prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum (Brovelli et al., 2008). Overall, accumulated evidence suggests that skill learning correlates with neural changes that occur in large brain networks, and that specific sub-networks are involved in coding specific processes, namely error prediction and 1st correct response. Future work should investigate the question of whether these mechanisms of individual learning, are also the same in more social forms of learning, as when we learn from others.
References
1. Brovelli A, Laksiri N, Nazarian B, Meunier M. and Boussaoud D (2008). Understanding the neural computations of arbitrary visuomotor learning through fMRI and associative learning theory. CEREBRAL CORTEX, 18:1485-1495.
Conference:
2nd NEUROMED Workshop, Fez, Morocco, 10 Jun - 12 Jun, 2010.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Oral Session 3: The plastic brain: implications for learning and education
Citation:
Boussaoud
D
(2010). Neuroplasticity and learning.
Front. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
2nd NEUROMED Workshop.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.12.00027
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Received:
04 Jun 2010;
Published Online:
04 Jun 2010.
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Correspondence:
Driss Boussaoud, INCM-CNRS and Université de la Méditerranée, ISB, Marseille, France, boussaoud@incm.cnrs-mrs.fr