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Mathias B, von Kriegstein K. Enriched learning: behavior, brain, and computation. Trends Cogn Sci 2023; 27:81-97. [PMID: 36456401 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2022.10.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2022] [Revised: 10/05/2022] [Accepted: 10/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The presence of complementary information across multiple sensory or motor modalities during learning, referred to as multimodal enrichment, can markedly benefit learning outcomes. Why is this? Here, we integrate cognitive, neuroscientific, and computational approaches to understanding the effectiveness of enrichment and discuss recent neuroscience findings indicating that crossmodal responses in sensory and motor brain regions causally contribute to the behavioral benefits of enrichment. The findings provide novel evidence for multimodal theories of enriched learning, challenge assumptions of longstanding cognitive theories, and provide counterevidence to unimodal neurobiologically inspired theories. Enriched educational methods are likely effective not only because they may engage greater levels of attention or deeper levels of processing, but also because multimodal interactions in the brain can enhance learning and memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian Mathias
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK; Chair of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
| | - Katharina von Kriegstein
- Chair of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
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Johnson JCS, Marshall CR, Weil RS, Bamiou DE, Hardy CJD, Warren JD. Hearing and dementia: from ears to brain. Brain 2021; 144:391-401. [PMID: 33351095 PMCID: PMC7940169 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awaa429] [Citation(s) in RCA: 81] [Impact Index Per Article: 27.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2020] [Revised: 10/02/2020] [Accepted: 10/17/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The association between hearing impairment and dementia has emerged as a major public health challenge, with significant opportunities for earlier diagnosis, treatment and prevention. However, the nature of this association has not been defined. We hear with our brains, particularly within the complex soundscapes of everyday life: neurodegenerative pathologies target the auditory brain, and are therefore predicted to damage hearing function early and profoundly. Here we present evidence for this proposition, based on structural and functional features of auditory brain organization that confer vulnerability to neurodegeneration, the extensive, reciprocal interplay between 'peripheral' and 'central' hearing dysfunction, and recently characterized auditory signatures of canonical neurodegenerative dementias (Alzheimer's disease, Lewy body disease and frontotemporal dementia). Moving beyond any simple dichotomy of ear and brain, we argue for a reappraisal of the role of auditory cognitive dysfunction and the critical coupling of brain to peripheral organs of hearing in the dementias. We call for a clinical assessment of real-world hearing in these diseases that moves beyond pure tone perception to the development of novel auditory 'cognitive stress tests' and proximity markers for the early diagnosis of dementia and management strategies that harness retained auditory plasticity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeremy C S Johnson
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Charles R Marshall
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
- Preventive Neurology Unit, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Rimona S Weil
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
- Movement Disorders Centre, Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Doris-Eva Bamiou
- UCL Ear Institute and UCL/UCLH Biomedical Research Centre, National Institute for Health Research, University College London, London, UK
| | - Chris J D Hardy
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Jason D Warren
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
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Mole JA, Baker IW, Ottley Munoz JM, Danby M, Warren JD, Butler CR. Avian agnosia: A window into auditory semantics. Neuropsychologia 2019; 134:107219. [PMID: 31593713 PMCID: PMC6891886 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107219] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2019] [Revised: 09/25/2019] [Accepted: 09/27/2019] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
The functional and neural organisation of auditory knowledge is relatively poorly understood. The breakdown of conceptual knowledge in semantic dementia has revealed that pre-morbid expertise influences the extent to which knowledge is differentiated. Whether this principle applies to a similar extent in the auditory domain is not yet known. Previous reports of patients with impaired auditory vs. intact visual expert knowledge suggest that expertise may have differential effects upon the organisation of auditory and visual knowledge. An equally plausible alternative, however, is that auditory knowledge is simply more vulnerable to deterioration. Thus, expertise effects in the auditory domain may not yet have been observed because knowledge of auditory expert vs. non-expert knowledge has yet to be compared. We had the opportunity to address this issue by studying SA, a patient with semantic dementia and extensive pre-morbid knowledge of birds. We undertook a systematic investigation of SA's auditory vs. visual knowledge from matched expert vs. non-expert categories. Relative to a group of 10 age, education and IQ matched bird experts, SA showed impaired auditory vs. intact visual avian knowledge, despite intact basic auditory perceptual abilities. This was explained by independent effects of modality and expertise. Thus, he was also disproportionately impaired for auditory vs. visual knowledge of items from non-expert categories. In both auditory and visual modalities, his performance was relatively more impaired on tests of non-expert vs. expert knowledge. These findings suggest that, while auditory knowledge may be more vulnerable to deterioration, expertise modulates visual and auditory knowledge to a similar extent.
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Affiliation(s)
- J A Mole
- Russell Cairns Unit, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK; Department of Neuropsychology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, UK.
| | - I W Baker
- Russell Cairns Unit, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
| | | | - M Danby
- Russell Cairns Unit, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
| | - J D Warren
- Dementia Research Centre, UCL Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
| | - C R Butler
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, UK
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Salvari V, Paraskevopoulos E, Chalas N, Müller K, Wollbrink A, Dobel C, Korth D, Pantev C. Auditory Categorization of Man-Made Sounds Versus Natural Sounds by Means of MEG Functional Brain Connectivity. Front Neurosci 2019; 13:1052. [PMID: 31636532 PMCID: PMC6787283 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2019.01052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2019] [Accepted: 09/19/2019] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Previous neuroimaging studies have shown that sounds can be discriminated due to living-related or man-made-related characteristics and involve different brain regions. However, these studies have mainly provided source space analyses, which offer simple maps of activated brain regions but do not explain how regions of a distributed system are functionally organized under a specific task. In the present study, we aimed to further examine the functional connectivity of the auditory processing pathway across different categories of non-speech sounds in healthy adults, by means of MEG. Our analyses demonstrated significant activation and interconnection differences between living and man-made object sounds, in the prefrontal areas, anterior-superior temporal gyrus (aSTG), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and supramarginal gyrus (SMG), occurring within 80–120 ms post-stimulus interval. Current findings replicated previous ones, in that other regions beyond the auditory cortex are involved during auditory processing. According to the functional connectivity analysis, differential brain networks across the categories exist, which proposes that sound category discrimination processing relies on distinct cortical networks, a notion that has been strongly argued in the literature also in relation to the visual system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vasiliki Salvari
- Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Evangelos Paraskevopoulos
- Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.,School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Nikolas Chalas
- School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Kilian Müller
- Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Andreas Wollbrink
- Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Christian Dobel
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany
| | - Daniela Korth
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany
| | - Christo Pantev
- Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
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