Ripollés P, Marco-Pallarés J, Alicart H, Tempelmann C, Rodríguez-Fornells A, Noesselt T. Intrinsic monitoring of learning success facilitates memory encoding via the activation of the SN/VTA-Hippocampal loop.
eLife 2016;
5. [PMID:
27644419 PMCID:
PMC5030080 DOI:
10.7554/elife.17441]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2016] [Accepted: 08/18/2016] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans constantly learn in the absence of explicit rewards. However, the neurobiological mechanisms supporting this type of internally-guided learning (without explicit feedback) are still unclear. Here, participants who completed a task in which no external reward/feedback was provided, exhibited enhanced fMRI-signals within the dopaminergic midbrain, hippocampus, and ventral striatum (the SN/VTA-Hippocampal loop) when successfully grasping the meaning of new-words. Importantly, new-words that were better remembered showed increased activation and enhanced functional connectivity between the midbrain, hippocampus, and ventral striatum. Moreover, enhanced emotion-related physiological measures and subjective pleasantness ratings during encoding were associated with remembered new-words after 24 hr. Furthermore, increased subjective pleasantness ratings were also related to new-words remembered after seven days. These results suggest that intrinsic—potentially reward-related—signals, triggered by self-monitoring of correct performance, can promote the storage of new information into long-term memory through the activation of the SN/VTA-Hippocampal loop, possibly via dopaminergic modulation of the midbrain.
DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.17441.001
Research shows that a reward such as money, or even simply the promise of such a reward, can boost the formation of long-term memories. However, in our everyday lives, we continually gain new knowledge and make new memories in the absence of any obvious immediate reward.
Rewards activate a network of brain regions that includes the hippocampus, which has a key role in memory, plus several areas that release the chemical messenger dopamine, which boosts memory formation. However, it was not clear whether this network of brain regions also supports learning that is driven internally rather than by external rewards or incentives.
Ripollés et al. have now tested this idea by asking thirty-six volunteers to try and learn the meaning of new words by reading pairs of sentences, all while lying down inside a brain scanner. Half of the paired sentences provided a clear and obvious meaning for the new word. As such, the volunteers were reasonably aware when they’d learned the meaning of a new word without any external feedback. This approach confirmed that the activity of the brain’s reward-memory loop did indeed increase whenever a volunteer learned a new word.
Next, outside the brain scanner, the volunteers performed the same task but this time they had to rate how engaging and enjoyable they found it after each trial. Emotional responses such as enjoyment trigger sweating, which alters the electrical activity of the skin. Ripollés et al. observed greater changes in this “electrodermal” activity when the volunteers learned words that they would go on to remember one day later, than when they learned words that they would quickly forget. The volunteers also reported greater enjoyment when learning the words that they would subsequently remember better, even after seven days.
Overall, these findings suggest that internally driven learning is in itself rewarding, and that under certain circumstances at least it can activate the brain’s reward-memory circuit. A key question for the future is whether tapping into intrinsically rewarding forms of learning might be a more effective educational strategy than relying on external feedback and incentives. This could be crucial to improving the design of educational programs – for example, in teaching literacy and foreign languages – and for improving the recovery of verbal skills lost after stroke.
DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.17441.002
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