Task specific disruption of perceptual learning (original) (raw)
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Neuroscience, 2010
Learning is often prevented by events that occur after training, an outcome that is usually attributed to the disruption of consolidation – the transfer of learning to long-term memory. Here, we provide evidence from perceptual learning that improvements in performance can also be blocked by intervening events that occur during the acquisition phase of learning – the period of active practice. Listeners improved on each of two conditions of auditory temporal-interval discrimination (100 and 350 ms) when the two were practiced consecutively, even though that is a classic disruption-of-consolidation regimen. However, when practice on these two conditions was interleaved, there was no learning on either condition. The failure to improve in the interleaved case indicates that, at least in some circumstances, learning can be prevented during acquisition by events that do not disrupt consolidation itself. These results thus suggest that acquisition and consolidation are distinct phases in human learning.
The differential consolidation of perceptual and motor learning in skill acquisition
Cortex, 2013
Offline learning Perceptual-motor learning Sleep a b s t r a c t Implicit skill learning is an unconscious way of learning which underlies not only motor but also cognitive and social skills. This form of learning is based on both motor and perceptual information. Although many studies have investigated the perceptual and motor components of "online" skill learning, the effect of consolidation on perceptual and motor characteristics of skill learning has not been studied to our knowledge. In our research we used a sequence learning task to determine if consolidation had the same or different effect on the perceptual and the motor components of skill acquisition.
Adaptation to visuomotor transformations: consolidation, interference, and forgetting
2005
The paradigm task A3task B3task A, which varies the time interval between task A and task B, has been used extensively to investigate the consolidation of motor memory. Consolidation is defined as resistance to retrograde interference (interference by task B on initial learning of task A). Consolidation has been demonstrated for simple skills, motor sequencing, and learning of force fields. In contrast, evidence to date suggests that visuomotor learning does not consolidate. We have shown previously that adaptation to a 30°screencursor rotation is faster and more complete on relearning 24 hr later. This improvement is prevented if a 30°counter-rotation is learned 5 min after the original rotation. Here, we sought to identify conditions under which rotation learning becomes resistant to interference by a counter-rotation. In experiment 1, we found that interference persists even when the counter-rotation is learned 24 hr after the initial rotation. In experiment 2, we removed potential anterograde interference (interference by task B on relearning of task A) by introducing washout blocks before all of the learning blocks. In contrast to experiment 1, we found resistance to interference (i.e., consolidation) when the counter-rotation was learned after 24 hr but not after 5 min. In experiment 3, we doubled the amount of initial rotation learning and found resistance to interference even after 5 min. Our results suggest that persistent interference is attributable to anterograde effects on memory retrieval. When anterograde effects are removed, rotation learning consolidates both over time and with increased initial training.
Failure to Consolidate the Consolidation Theory of Learning for Sensorimotor Adaptation Tasks
Journal of Neuroscience, 2004
An influential idea in human motor learning is that there is a consolidation period during which motor memories are transformed from a fragile to a permanent state, no longer susceptible to interference from new learning. The evidence supporting this idea comes from studies showing that the motor memory of a task (A) is lost when an opposing task (B) is experienced soon after, but not if sufficient time is allowed to pass (ϳ6 hr). We report results from three laboratories challenging this consolidation idea. We used an ABA paradigm in the context of a reaching task to assess the influence of experiencing B after A on the retention of A. In two experiments using visuomotor rotations, we found that B fully interferes with the retention of A even when B is experienced 24 hr after A. Contrary to previous reports, in four experiments on learning force fields, we also observed full interference between A and B when they are separated by 24 hr or even 1 week. This latter result holds for both position-dependent and velocity-dependent force fields. For both the visuomotor and force-field tasks, complete interference is still observed when the possible affects of anterograde interference are controlled through the use of washout trials. Our results fail to support the idea that motor memories become consolidated into a protected state. Rather, they are consistent with recent ideas of memory formation, which propose that memories can shift between active and inactive states.
Vision Research, 2010
Studies of perceptual learning have focused on aspects of learning that are related to early stages of sensory processing. However, conclusions that perceptual learning results in low-level sensory plasticity are controversial, since such learning may also be attributed to plasticity in later stages of sensory processing or in readout from sensory to decision stages, or to changes in high-level central processing. To address this controversy, we developed a novel random dot motion (RDM) stimulus to target motion cells selective to contrast polarity by ensuring the motion direction information arises only from signal dot onsets and not their offsets, and used these stimuli in the paradigm of task-irrelevant perceptual learning (TIPL). In TIPL, learning is achieved in response to a stimulus by subliminally pairing that stimulus with the targets of an unrelated training task. In this manner, we are able to probe learning for an aspect of motion processing thought to be a function of directional V1 simple cells with a learning procedure that dissociates the learned stimulus from the decision processes relevant to the training task. Our results show direction-selective learning for the designated contrast polarity that does not transfer to the opposite contrast polarity. This polarity specificity was replicated in a double training procedure in which subjects were additionally exposed to the opposite polarity. Taken together, these results suggest that TIPL for motion stimuli may occur at the stage of directional V1 simple cells. Finally, a theoretical explanation is provided to understand the data.
Segregation between acquisition and long-term memory in sensorimotor learning
European Journal of Neuroscience, 2005
It is widely accepted that learning first involves generating new memories and then consolidating them into long-term memory. Thus learning is generally viewed as a single continuous process with two sequential stages; acquisition and consolidation. Here, we tested an alternative hypothesis proposing that acquisition and consolidation take place, at least partly, in parallel. Human subjects learned two visuomotor tasks. One task required moving a cursor under visuomotor rotation and the other required arbitrary association of colour to direction of movement. Subjects learned the two tasks in sequence, and were tested for acquisition of the second immediately after learning the first, and for retention of the first on the following day. The results show that learning one task led to proactive interference to acquisition of the second. However, this interference was not accompanied by retroactive interference to consolidation of the first task, indicating that acquisition and consolidation can be uncoupled.
Adaptation to visual feedback delay influences visuomotor learning
2012
Computational theory of motor control suggests that the brain continuously monitors motor commands, to predict their sensory consequences before actual sensory feedback becomes available. Such prediction error is a driving force of motor learning, and therefore appropriate associations between motor commands and delayed sensory feedback signals are crucial. Indeed, artificially introduced delays in visual feedback have been reported to degrade motor learning. However, considering our perceptual ability to causally bind our own actions with sensory feedback, demonstrated by the decrease in the perceived time delay following repeated exposure to an artificial delay, we hypothesized that such perceptual binding might alleviate deficits of motor learning associated with delayed visual feedback. Here, we evaluated this hypothesis by investigating the ability of human participants to adapt their reaching movements in response to a novel visuomotor environment with 3 visual feedback conditions-no-delay, sudden-delay, and adapted-delay. To introduce novelty into the trials, the cursor position, which originally indicated the hand position in baseline trials, was rotated around the starting position. In contrast to the no-delay condition, a 200-ms delay was artificially introduced between the cursor and hand positions during the presence of visual rotation (sudden-delay condition), or before the application of visual rotation (adapted-delay condition). We compared the learning rate (representing how the movement error modifies the movement direction in the subsequent trial) between the 3 conditions. In comparison with the no-delay condition, the learning rate was significantly degraded for the sudden-delay condition. However, this degradation was significantly alleviated by prior exposure to the delay (adapted-delay condition). Our data indicate the importance of appropriate temporal associations between motor commands and sensory feedback in visuomotor learning. Moreover, they suggest that the brain is able to account for such temporal associations in a flexible manner.
Learning perceptual skills: behavioral probes into adult cortical plasticity
Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 1997
Recent studies of the improvement of perceptual performance as a function of training-perceptual learning -have provided new insights into the neuronal substrates of this type of skill learning in the adult brain. Issues such as where in the brain, when and under what conditions practice-related changes occur are under investigation. The results of these studies suggest that a behaviorally relevant degree of plasticity is retained in the adult cortex, even within early, low-level representations in sensory and motor processing streams. The acquisition and retention of skills may share many characteristics with the functional plasticity subserving early-life learning and development. While the specificity of learning provides localization constraints, an important clue to the nature of the underlying neuronal changes is the time course of learning. Addresses Abbreviation PET positron emission tomography Poggio T, Fahle M, Edelman S: Fast perceptual learning in visual hyperacuity. Science 1992, 256:1018-l 021. Aronson L, Rosenhouse J, Podoshin L, Rosenhouse G, Zanutto SB: Pitch perception in patients with a multi-channel cochlear implant using various pulses width. Med Prog Technol 1994, 20~43-51. Dudai Y: Consolidation: fragility on the road to the engram. Neuron 1996, 17~367-370. Mollon JD, Danilova MV: Three remarks on perceptual learning. Spat Vis 1996, IO:51 -58. Saarinen J, Levi DM: Perceptual learning in vernier acuity: what is learned? Vision Res 1995, 35:519-527. Recanzone GH, Jenkins WM, Hradek GT, Merzenich MM: Progressive improvement in discriminative abilities in adult owl monkeys performing a tactile frequency discrimination task. J Neurophysiol 1992, 67:1015-l 030. Recanzone GH, Merzenich MM, Jenkins WM, Grajski KA, Dinse HR: Topographic reorganization of the hand representation in cortical area 3b owl monkeys trained in a frequency-discrimination task. J Neorophysiol 1992, 67:1031-1056. Recanzone GH, Merzenich MM, Jenkins WM: Frequency discrimination training engaging a restricted skin surface results in an emergence of a cutaneous response zone in cortical area 3a. J Neurophysiol 1992, 67:1057-l 070. Recanzone GH, Merzenich MM, Schreiner CE: Changes in the distributed temporal response properties of SI cortical neurons reflect improvements in performance on a temporally based tactile discrimination task. J Neurophysiol 1992, 67:1071-1091. Recanzone GH, Schreiner CE, Merzenich MM: Plasticity in the frequency representation of primary auditory cortex following discrimination training in adult owl monkeys. J Neurosci 1993, 13:87-l 03. Singer W: Development and plasticity of cortical processing architectures. Science 1995, 270~758-764.