Learning transfer and neuronal plasticity in humans trained in tactile discrimination

Spengler, Friederike; Roberts, Timothy P.L.; Poeppel, David; Byl, Nancy N.; Wang, Xiaoqin; Rowley, Howard A.; Merzenich, M. M.

doi:10.1016/s0304-3940(97)00602-2

Cited by 48 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…In regard to the transfer of learning between ears, the results of Experiment 1 showed that following training, FDTs were overall as small in the left, untrained ear as in the right, trained ear. This finding of learning transfer between ears for auditory frequency discrimination can be paralleled with the findings of learning transfer between eyes for various visual tasks (Ball & Sekuler, 1987;Berardi & Fiorentini, 1987;Schoups & Orban, 1996) and between hands for tactile discrimination (Sathian & Zangaladze, 1997;Spengler et al, 1997).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

“…In the visual modality, marked improvements in performance have in particular been demonstrated for vernier acuity (Beard, Levi, & Reich, 1995;McKee & Westheimer, 1978;Saarinen & Levi, 1995), spatial frequency discrimination (Fiorentini & Berardi, 1980, orientation discrimination (Karni & Sagi, 1991;Vogels & Orban, 1985), texture discrimination (Karni & Sagi, 1993), and motion discrimination (Ball & Sekuler, 1982. In the somatosensory modality, improvements in tactilediscrimination performance over time have been reported (Sathian & Zangaladze, 1997;Spengler et al, 1997).…”

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confidence: 98%

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Transfer of learning across durations and ears in auditory frequency discrimination

Delhommeau

Micheyl

Jouvent

et al. 2002

Perception & Psychophysics

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Frequency-discriminationthresholds (FDTs) for 1-kHz tone pips with durations of 40, 100, and 200 msec were measured in the left and right ears of 10 normal-hearing listeners,before and after six 2-h frequencydiscrimination training sessions involving, exclusively, the 200-msec duration and the right ear. In the trained ear, highly significant improvements in FDTs were observed at all durations. Further inspection of the data suggested complete generalizationbetween 200 and 100 msec, but not at 40 msec. Posttraining FDTs were not found to differ between the two ears for the two untrained durations, but proved significantly smaller in the right (trained) than in the left (untrained) ear at the trained (200-msec) duration only. A control experiment involving 10 additional subjects allowed us to establish the absence of intrinsic differences in pretraining FDTs between the right and left ears. Overall, these findings indicate that frequency-discriminationlearning generalizeswidely across stimulus durations and across ears, but that part of the improvement is specific to the range of durations and to the ear used in training.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

mentioning

confidence: 98%

Transfer of learning across durations and ears in auditory frequency discrimination

Delhommeau

Micheyl

Jouvent

et al. 2002

Perception & Psychophysics

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“…Several human studies have demonstrated that long-term perceptual training or attentional shifts reorganize human somatosensory cortex (25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30). However, although these studies demonstrated that the type of Euclidean distance between the N20-dipole location before and after coactivation for the test and the control finger (hemispheric difference, P Ͻ 0.05).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shifts in cortical representations predict human discrimination improvement

Pleger

Dinse

Ragert

et al. 2001

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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We report experiments combining assessment of spatial tactile discrimination behavior and measurements of somatosensoryevoked potentials in human subjects before and after short-term plastic changes to demonstrate a causal link between the degree of altered performance and reorganization. Plastic changes were induced by a Hebbian coactivation protocol of simultaneous pairing of tactile stimuli. As a result of coactivation, spatial discrimination thresholds were lowered; however, the amount of discrimination improvement was variable across subjects. Analysis of somatosensory-evoked potentials revealed a significant, but also variable shift in the localization of the N20-dipole of the index finger that was coactivated. The Euclidean distance between the dipole pre-and post-coactivation was significantly larger on the coactivated side (mean 9.13 ؎ 3.4 mm) than on the control side (mean 4.90 ؎ 2.7 mm, P ‫؍‬ 0.008). Changes of polar angles indicated a lateral and inferior shift on the postcentral gyrus of the left hemisphere representing the coactivated index finger. To explore how far the variability of improvement was reflected in the degree of reorganization, we correlated the perceptual changes with the N20-dipole shifts. We found that the changes in discrimination abilities could be predicted from the changes in dipole localization. Little gain in spatial discrimination was associated with small changes in dipole shifts. In contrast, subjects who showed a large cortical reorganization also had lowest thresholds. All changes were highly selective as no transfer to the index finger of the opposite, non-coactivated hand was found. Our results indicate that human spatial discrimination performance is subject to improvement on a short time scale by a Hebbian stimulation protocol without invoking training, attention, or reinforcement. Plastic processes related to the improvement were localized in primary somatosensory cortex and were scaled with the degree of the individual perceptual improvement. N oninvasive imaging techniques used to explore cortical reorganization in human subjects revealed that improvement of behavioral performance following extensive use or training is paralleled by substantial changes of cortical representations (1-7). These findings confirmed the relevance of cortical plasticity for everyday life; however, it remains open how far differences in the magnitude of reorganizational changes can explain individual differences in learning-induced changes of performance. Specifically, there is a controversy in how far the variability of improvement is reflected in the degree of reorganization. Here, we report experiments combining simultaneous assessment of spatial tactile discrimination behavior and measurements of somatosensory-evoked potentials (SSEPs) before and after short-term plastic changes to demonstrate a close link between altered performance and reorganization in primary somatosensory cortex.To induce cortical reorganization without invoking training or cognitive factors such as attention ...

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“…In the present study, this question was addressed by using a transfer-of-learning approach similar to that used in several earlier studies in the visual and somatosensory modalities (Ahissar & Hochstein, 1993Ball & Sekuler, 1982, 1987Fiorentini & Berardi, 1981a, 1981bKarni & Sagi, 1990Polat & Sagi, 1994;Sathian & Zangaladze, 1997a, 1997bSchoups & Orban, 1996;Schoups, Vogels, & Orban, 1995;Shiu & Pashler, 1992;Spengler et al, 1997) and in the auditory modality (Demany, 1986;Irvine, Martin, Klimkeit, & Smith, 2000;Wright, Buonomano, Mahncke, & Merzenich, 1997). The general assumption behind this approach relies on the idea that if perceptual performance on two different tasks or with two different stimulus types is underlain by different neural processes or sets, exclusive practice in one task or with one stimulus type will train, specifically, the neural processes or sets engaged by this task or stimulus type.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for two pitch encoding mechanisms using a selective auditory training paradigm

Grimault

Micheyl

Carlyon

et al. 2002

Perception & Psychophysics

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Learning transfer and neuronal plasticity in humans trained in tactile discrimination

Cited by 48 publications

References 16 publications

Transfer of learning across durations and ears in auditory frequency discrimination

Transfer of learning across durations and ears in auditory frequency discrimination

Shifts in cortical representations predict human discrimination improvement

Evidence for two pitch encoding mechanisms using a selective auditory training paradigm

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