Direct comparison of neural systems mediating conscious and unconscious skill learning

Neural correlates of encoding and expression in implicit sequence learning

In the domain of motor learning it has been difficult to separate the neural substrate of encoding from that of change in performance. Consequently, it has not been clear whether motor effector areas participate in learning or merely modulate changes in performance. Here, using a variant of the serial reaction time task that dissociated these two factors, we report that encoding during procedural motor learning does engage cortical motor areas and can be characterized by distinct early and late encoding phases. The highest correlation between activation and subsequent changes in motor performance was seen in the motor cortex during early encoding, and in the basal ganglia during the late encoding phase. Our results show that rapid encoding during procedural motor learning involves several distinct processes, and is represented primarily within motor system structures.

Time-varying covariance of neural activities recorded in striatum and frontal cortex as monkeys perform sequential-saccade tasks

Cortico-basal ganglia circuits are key parts of the brain's habit system, but little is yet known about how these forebrain pathways function as ingrained habits are performed. We simultaneously recorded spike and local field potential (LFP) activity from regions of the frontal cortex and basal ganglia implicated in visuo-oculomotor control as highly trained macaque monkeys performed sequences of visually guided saccades. The tasks were repetitive, required no new learning, and could be performed nearly automatically. Our findings demonstrate striking differences between the relative timing of striatal and cortical activity during performance of the tasks. At the onset of the visual cues, LFPs in the prefrontal cortex and the oculomotor zone of the striatum showed near-synchronous activation. During the period of sequential-saccade performance, however, peak LFP activity occurred 100-300 msec later in the striatum than in the prefrontal cortex. Peak prefrontal activity tended to be peri-saccadic, whereas peak striatal activity tended to be post-saccadic. This temporal offset was also apparent in pairs of simultaneously recorded prefrontal and striatal neurons. In triple-site recordings, the LFP activity recorded in the supplementary eye field shared temporal characteristics of both the prefrontal and the striatal patterns. The near simultaneity of prefrontal and striatal peak responses at cue onsets, but temporal lag of striatal activity in the movement periods, suggests that the striatum may integrate corollary discharge or confirmatory response signals during sequential task performance. These timing relationships may be signatures of the normal functioning of striatal and frontal cortex during repetitive performance of learned behaviors.

Memories that last in old age: motor skill learning and memory preservation

Using an automated test panel, age-associated declines in learning, remembering and performing a novel visuomotor task were assessed in 497 normal adults ranging from 18 to 95 years old. As predicted, task performance times slowed with increasing age in the cross-sectional portion of the study. However in the subsequent longitudinal study, while motor learning was significantly slower in adults over 62 years old, motor memory was pristinely preserved in normal adults from 18 to 95 years old. When tested 2 years after the first training session and without intervening rehearsal, mean performance times were retained and continued to improve by 10% in young adults and 13% in aged adults, reflecting long lasting preservation of motor memories. While the maximum lifetime of an unpracticed, novel motor memory in humans is not known, the present study suggests that new motor memories can be retained for at least 2 years without rehearsal in normal aged adults. This age-resistant component of motor memory stands in contrast to the well-known decrements in other motor and cognitive processes with human aging.

Emergence of rhythm during motor learning

Complex motor skill often consists of a fixed sequence of movements. Recent studies show that a stereotyped temporal pattern or rhythm emerges as we learn to perform a motor sequence. This is because the sequence is reorganized during learning as serial chunks of movements in both a sequence-specific and subject-specific manner. On the basis of human imaging studies we propose that the formation of chunk patterns is controlled by the cerebellum, its posterior and anterior lobes contributing, respectively, to the temporal patterns before and after chunk formation. The motor rhythm can assist the motor networks in the cerebral cortex to control automatic movements within chunks and the cognitive networks to control non-automatic movements between chunks, respectively. In this way, organized motor skill can be performed automatically and flexibly.

Common fronto-parietal activity in attention, memory, and consciousness: shared demands on integration?

Fronto-parietal activity has been frequently observed in fMRI and PET studies of attention, working memory, and episodic memory retrieval. Several recent fMRI studies have also reported fronto-parietal activity during conscious visual perception. A major goal of this review was to assess the degree of anatomical overlap among activation patterns associated with these four functions. A second goal was to shed light on the possible cognitive relationship of processes that relate to common brain activity across functions. For all reviewed functions we observed a consistent and overlapping pattern of brain activity. The overlap was most pronounced for the bilateral parietal cortex (BA 7 and BA 40; close to the intraparietal sulcus), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (right BA 9 and left BA 6). The common fronto-parietal activity will be discussed in terms of processes related to integration of distributed representations in the brain.

Skill Learning: Putting Procedural Consolidation in Context

Information acquired during skill learning continues to be processed long after practice has ceased. An important aspect of this processing is thought to be the transformation of a memory from a fragile to a stable state: a concept challenged by a recent study.

Hypoperfusion without stroke alters motor activation in the opposite hemisphere

To specifically investigate the effect that large-vessel disease may have on cortical reorganization, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study patients with unilateral hemispheric hypoperfusion and impaired vasomotor reactivity from critical internal carotid or middle cerebral artery disease but without stroke. We hypothesized that when these patients used the hand contralateral to the hypoperfused hemisphere they would show unique activation in motor-related areas of the normally perfused hemisphere, that is, ipsilateral activation. We found that normal performance of two motor tasks was associated with increased ipsilateral hemispheric activation in the patients compared with age-matched controls. In addition, although task difficulty had an effect on ipsilateral activation, the increased ipsilateral activation seen in patients was not dependent on task difficulty. Our findings demonstrate that hemodynamic compromise alone is sufficient to cause atypical ipsilateral activation. This activation may serve to maintain normal motor performance.

Prefrontal-hippocampal dynamics involved in learning regularities across episodes

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the neural correlates of context-specific memories and invariant memories about regularities across episodes were investigated. Volunteers had to learn conjunctions between objects and positions. In an invariant learning condition, positions were held constant, enabling subjects to learn regularities across trials. By contrast, in a context-specific condition object-position conjunctions were trial unique. Performance increase in the invariant learning condition was paralleled by a learning-related increase of inferior frontal gyrus activation and ventral striatal activation and a decrease of hippocampus activation. Conversely, in the context-specific condition hippocampal activation was constant across trials. We argue that the learning-related hippocampal activation pattern might be due to reduced relational binding requirements once regularities are extracted. Furthermore, we propose that the learning-related prefrontal modulation reflects the requirement to extract and maintain regularities across trials and the adjustment of object-position conjunctions on the basis of the extracted knowledge. Finally, our data suggest that the ventral striatum encodes the increased predictability of spatial features as a function of learning. Taken together, these results indicate a transition of the relative roles of distinct brain regions during learning regularities across multiple episodes: regularity learning is characterized by a shift from a hippocampal to a prefrontal-striatal brain system.

Evidence of Developmental Differences in Implicit Sequence Learning: An fMRI Study of Children and Adults

Prevailing theories of implicit or unaware learning propose a developmental invariance model, with implicit function maturing early in infancy or childhood despite prolonged improvements in explicit or intentional learning and memory systems across childhood. Neuroimaging studies of adult visuomotor sequence learning have associated fronto-striatal brain regions with implicit learning of spatial sequences. Given evidence of continued development in these brain regions during childhood, we compare implicit sequence learning in adults and 7- to 11-year-old children to examine potential developmental differences in the recruitment of fronto-striatal circuitry during implicit learning. Participants performed a standard serial reaction time task. Stimuli alternately followed a fixed 10-step sequence of locations or were presented in a pseudorandom order of locations. Adults outperformed children, achieving a significantly larger sequence learning effect and showing learning more quickly than children. Age-related differences in activity were observed in the premotor cortex, putamen, hippocampus, inferotemporal cortex, and parietal cortex. We observed differential recruitment of cortical and subcortical motor systems between groups, presumably reflecting age differences in motor response execution. Adults showed greater hippocampal activity for sequence trials, whereas children demonstrated greater signal during random trials. Activity in the right caudate correlated significantly with behavioral measures of implicit learning for both age groups, although adults showed greater signal change than children overall, as would be expected given developmental differences in sequence learning magnitude. These results challenge the idea of developmental invariance in implicit learning and instead support a view of parallel developments in implicit and explicit learning systems.

Probability detection mechanisms and motor learning

The automatic detection of patterns or regularities in the environment is central to certain forms of motor learning, which are largely procedural and implicit. The rules underlying the detection and use of probabilistic information in the perceptual-motor domain are largely unknown. We conducted two experiments involving a motor learning task with direct and crossed mapping of motor responses in which probabilities were present at the stimulus set level, the response set level, and at the level of stimulus-response (S-R) mapping. We manipulated only one level at a time, while controlling for the other two. The results show that probabilities were detected only when present at the S-R mapping and motor levels, but not at the perceptual one (experiment 1), unless the perceptual features have a dimensional overlap with the S-R mapping rule (experiment 2). The effects of probability detection were mostly facilitatory at the S-R mapping, both facilitatory and inhibitory at the perceptual level, and predominantly inhibitory at the response-set level. The facilitatory effects were based on learning the absolute frequencies first and transitional probabilities later (for the S-R mapping rule) or both types of information at the same time (for perceptual level), whereas the inhibitory effects were based on learning first the transitional probabilities. Our data suggest that both absolute frequencies and transitional probabilities are used in motor learning, but in different temporal orders, according to the probabilistic properties of the environment. The results support the idea that separate neural circuits may be involved in detecting absolute frequencies as compared to transitional probabilities.

Providing explicit information disrupts implicit motor learning after basal ganglia stroke

Despite their purported neuroanatomic and functional isolation, empirical evidence suggests that sometimes conscious explicit processes can influence implicit motor skill learning. Our goal was to determine if the provision of explicit information affected implicit motor-sequence learning after damage to the basal ganglia. Individuals with stroke affecting the basal ganglia (BG) and healthy controls (HC) practiced a continuous implicit motor-sequencing task; half were provided with explicit information (EI) and half were not (No-EI). The focus of brain damage for both BG groups was in the putamen. All of the EI participants were at least explicitly aware of the repeating sequence. Across three days of practice, explicit information had a differential effect on the groups. Explicit information disrupted acquisition performance in participants with basal ganglia stroke but not healthy controls. By retention (day 4), a dissociation was apparent--explicit information hindered implicit learning in participants with basal ganglia lesions but aided healthy controls. It appears that after basal ganglia stroke explicit information is less helpful in the development of the motor plan than is discovering a motor solution using the implicit system alone. This may be due to the increased demand placed on working memory by explicit information. Thus, basal ganglia integrity may be a crucial factor in determining the efficacy of explicit information for implicit motor-sequence learning.

Intentional control and implicit sequence learning

Sequence knowledge acquired by repeated exposure to targets in a speeded localization task was studied in 3 experiments that sought to test A. Destrebecqz and A. Cleeremans's (2001, 2003) claim that, under certain circumstances, the expression of such sequence knowledge cannot be brought under intentional control. In Experiment 1 participants were trained on either a deterministic or a probabilistic sequence and then performed a free-generation test under either inclusion or exclusion instructions. Participants were found to be capable of both expressing (inclusion) and avoiding expressing (exclusion) sequence knowledge. These results were confirmed in Experiment 2 with a more exact replication of Destrebecqz and Cleeremans's methodology. In Experiment 3 participants performed a trial-by-trial generation test under both inclusion and exclusion conditions after a much longer period of training. All the findings are consistent with the proposal that information acquired during sequence learning is explicit in nature.

The Relevance of the Nature of Learned Associations for the Differentiation of Human Memory Systems

In a previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study we demonstrated an involvement of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) during an implicit learning task. We concluded that the MTL was engaged because of the complex contingencies that were implicitly learned. In addition, the basal ganglia demonstrated effects of a paralleled proceduralization of fixed stimulus-response associations. In the present study we directly tested the hypothesis that the MTL activation depends upon implementing the complex regularity in task material, whereas activation of basal ganglia does not. Therefore, we rearranged task material such that it did not contain any complex regularity. The statistical comparison of behavioral and fMRI data between the materials allowed for isolating effects that were directly related to the implicit learning process regarding the complex regularity. The results showed a reliable difference of fMRI signal limited to the MTL, indicating a specific functional role of the MTL in implicit learning of complex contingencies. Furthermore, no difference of BOLD (Blood-Oxygenation Level Dependent) signal in the basal ganglia and cerebellum were detected, supporting the assumption of a functional involvement of the structures in proceduralization of simple stimulus-response associations but not in implicitly learning complex relations. We therefore conclude that the nature of the learned associations is relevant for determining the neuronal focus of learning, rather than the accompanying awareness.

What neuroimaging and brain localization can do, cannot do and should not do for social psychology

Interest in bridging social psychology and neuroscience has seen a significant upsurge. Much of this interest has centered on brain localization--the attempt to relate psychological events to locations of brain events. Although many articles have sought to localize brain activity that supports social behavior, scant attention has been paid to the specific methods to be used in integrating brain localization data into psychological theory. The authors describe 4 strategies psychologists can use to integrate brain localization data and psychological theory, and they consider whether social psychology presents special considerations in the use of these strategies. They conclude that brain localization offers a useful tool for some but not all problems in social psychology, and they discuss the types of problems for which it may and may not prove useful.

Awareness Modifies the Skill-Learning Benefits of Sleep

Behind every skilled movement lies months of practice. However, practice alone is not responsible for the acquisition of all skill; performance can improve between, not just within, practice sessions. An important principle shaping these offline improvements may be an individual's awareness of learning a new skill. New skills, such as a sequence of finger movements, can be learned unintentionally (with little awareness for the sequence, implicit learning) or intentionally (explicit learning). We measured skill in an implicit and explicit sequence-learning task before and after a 12 hr interval. This interval either did (8 p.m. to 8 a.m.) or did not (8 a.m. to 8 p.m.) include a period of sleep. Following explicit sequence learning, offline skill improvements were only observed when the 12 hr interval included sleep. This overnight improvement was correlated with the amount of NREM sleep. The same improvement could also be observed in the evening (with an interval from 8 p.m. to 8 p.m.), so it was not coupled to retesting at a particular time of day and cannot therefore be attributed to circadian factors. In contrast, in the implicit learning task, offline learning was observed regardless of whether the 12 hr interval did or did not contain a period of sleep. However, these improvements were not observed with only a 15 min interval between sessions. Therefore, the practice available within each session cannot account for these skill improvements. Instead, sufficient time is necessary for offline learning to occur. These results show a behavioral dissociation, based upon an individual's awareness for having learned a sequence of finger movements. Offline learning is sleep dependent for explicit skills but time dependent for implicit skills.

Studies in cognition: the problems solved and created by transcranial magnetic stimulation

The application of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to investigate important questions in cognitive neuroscience has increased considerably in the last few years. TMS can provide substantial insights into the nature and the chronometry of the computations performed by specific cortical areas during various aspects of cognition. However, the use of TMS in cognitive studies has many potential perils and pitfalls. Although TMS can help bridge the gap between psychological models and brain-based arguments of cognitive functions, hypothesis-driven carefully designed experiments that acknowledge the current limitations of TMS are critical.

Independent Processing of the Temporal and Ordinal Structure of Movement Sequences

We investigated if the temporal and ordinal structures of sequences can be represented and learned independently. In Experiment 1, subjects learned three rhythmic sequences of key presses with the right index finger: Combined consisted of nine key presses with a corresponding temporal structure of eight intervals; Temporal had the temporal structure of Combined but was performed on one key; Ordinal had the ordinal structure of Combined but an isochronous rhythm. Subjects were divided into two groups. Group 1 first learned Combined, then Temporal and Ordinal; Group 2 first learned Temporal and Ordinal, then Combined. Strong transfer effects were seen in both groups. In Group 1, having learned combined facilitated the learning of the temporal ( Temporal) or ordinal ( Ordinal) sequence alone; in Group 2, having learned Temporal and Ordinal facilitated the learning of Combined, where the two are combined. This supports that subjects had formed independent temporal and ordinal representations. In Experiment 2, we investigated if these can be learned independently. Subjects repeatedly reproduced sequences with fixed temporal and random ordinal structure; random temporal and fixed ordinal structure; and random temporal and ordinal structures. Temporal and ordinal learning was seen only in the first and second sequences, respectively. In summary, we provide evidence for the existence of independent systems for learning and representation of ordinal and temporal sequences and for implicit learning of temporal sequences. This may be important for fast learning and flexibility in motor control.

Organization of action sequences and the role of the pre-SMA

To understand the contribution of the human presupplementary motor area (pre-SMA) in sequential motor behavior, we performed a series of finger key-press experiments. Experiment 1 revealed that each subject had a spontaneous tendency to organize or "chunk" a long sequence into shorter components. We hypothesized that the pre-SMA might have a special role in initiating each chunk but not at other points during the sequence. Experiment 2 therefore examined the effect of 0.5-s, 10-Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) directed over the pre-SMA. As hypothesized, performance was disrupted when rTMS was delivered over the pre-SMA at the beginning of the second chunk but not when it was delivered in the middle of a chunk. Contrary to the hypothesis, TMS did not disrupt sequence initiation. Experiments 3 and 4 examined whether the very first movement of a sequence could be disrupted under any circumstances. Pre-SMA TMS did disrupt the initiation of sequences but only when subjects had to switch between sequences and when the first movement of each sequence was not covertly instructed by a learned visuomotor association. In conjunction, the results suggest that for overlearned sequences the pre-SMA is primarily concerned with the initiation of a sequence or sequence chunk and the role of the pre-SMA in sequence initiation is only discerned when subjects must retrieve the sequence from memory as a superordinate set of movements without the aid of a visuomotor association. Control experiments revealed such effects were not present when rTMS was applied over the left dorsal premotor cortex.

Implicit learning of visuospatial sequences in schizophrenia

The authors examined whether patients with schizophrenia learned sequential patterns in a probabilistic serial response time task in which pattern trials alternated with random ones. Patients showed faster and more accurate responses to pattern trials than to random trials, but controls showed greater sensitivity to patterns. The highest level of regularity learned in both groups was information about runs of 3 events. Pattern learning occurred largely outside of awareness, as participants could not describe patterns. Controls with higher memory spans learned the sequential pattern better than those with lower memory spans, suggesting that working memory influences implicit pattern learning. Pathology in motor sequencing systems and poor working memory may lead to deficits in learning sequence structure in schizophrenia.

Neocortical mechanisms in motor learning

The ability to learn novel motor skills has fundamental importance for adaptive behavior. Neocortical mechanisms support human motor skill learning, from simple practice to adaptation and arbitrary sensory-motor associations. Behavioral and neural manifestations of motor learning evolve in time and involve multiple structures across the neocortex. Modifications of neural properties, synchrony and synaptic efficacy are all related to the development and maintenance of motor skill.

An FMRI study of the role of the medial temporal lobe in implicit and explicit sequence learning

fMRI was used to investigate the neural substrates supporting implicit and explicit sequence learning, focusing especially upon the role of the medial temporal lobe. Participants performed a serial reaction time task (SRTT). For implicit learning, they were naive about a repeating pattern, whereas for explicit learning, participants memorized another repeating sequence. fMRI analyses comparing repeating versus random sequence blocks demonstrated activation of frontal, parietal, cingulate, and striatal regions implicated in previous SRTT studies. Importantly, mediotemporal lobe regions were active in both explicit and implicit SRTT learning. Moreover, the results provide evidence of a role for the hippocampus and related cortices in the formation of higher order associations under both implicit and explicit learning conditions, regardless of conscious awareness of sequence knowledge.

Relationship between priming and recognition in deterministic and probabilistic sequence learning

Exposure to a repeating sequence of target stimuli in a speeded localization task can support both priming of sequence-consistent responses and recognition of sequence components. In 3 experiments with both deterministic and probabilistic sequences, the authors used a novel procedure in which measures or priming and recognition were taken concurrently and asked whether these measures can be dissociated. In all of these experiments, both measures were above chance at the group level and no evidence of dissociation was found. Item-level analyses of the data in Experiment 3 did reveal dissociations in that (a) recognition judgments were affected by response speed independently of old-new status and (b) items that were not discriminated in recognition nonetheless showed priming. However, the authors show that these data, together with the group-level results, are compatible with a formal model in which priming and recognition are based on a single common memory variable.

Activity in the supplementary motor area related to learning and performance during a sequential visuomotor task

Monkeys were trained in a serial reaction time task to produce hand movements according to changing locations of visual targets. In most trials, targets followed the same sequence repeatedly, whereas in other trials targets were presented in random locations or switched unpredictably between two alternative sequences. Single-unit activity was recorded from the caudal supplementary motor area (SMA-proper). Based on the activity associated with random movement sequences, effects of hand position and movement direction were evaluated. Activity was influenced by the hand position in ~60% of the neurons, and the movement direction influenced the activity of 51% of the neurons. In addition, 37 and 71% of SMA neurons displayed nonstationarity in their activity across successive movements within a given trial and across trials, respectively. Such nonstationarity in the ongoing neural activity and the effects of performance-related variables were evaluated using a regression model and separated from learning-related activity changes. About a third of SMA neurons displayed gradual changes in neural activity related to experience with a movement sequence across trials. Furthermore, about a quarter of SMA neurons showed similar changes within individual trials. When the individual movements included in the frequently repeated movement sequences were introduced unexpectedly, learning-related changes in neural activity were reduced, indicating that many SMA neurons changed their activity in relation to the learning of particular movement sequences. These results suggest that the pattern of neural activity in the cortical network involved in the control of movement sequences can be modified continuously by experience.

Prefrontal cortex: procedural sequence learning and awareness

Activation of the prefrontal cortex has been linked to awareness during sequence-learning tasks. A recent study, however, finds activation of the prefrontal cortex during such tasks regardless of awareness. So what is the neurophysiological basis of awareness, and what is the role of the prefrontal cortex in sequence learning?