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Reifegerste J, Estabrooke IV, Russell LE, Veríssimo J, Johari K, Wilmarth B, Pagan FL, Moussa C, Ullman MT. Can sex influence the neurocognition of language? Evidence from Parkinson's disease. Neuropsychologia 2020; 148:107633. [PMID: 32971096 PMCID: PMC8613481 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107633] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2018] [Revised: 06/28/2020] [Accepted: 09/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Parkinson's disease (PD), which involves basal ganglia degeneration, affects language as well as motor function. However, which aspects of language are impaired in PD and under what circumstances remains unclear. We examined whether lexical and grammatical aspects of language are differentially affected in PD, and whether this dissociation is moderated by sex as well as the degree of basal ganglia degeneration. Our predictions were based on the declarative/procedural model of language. The model posits that grammatical composition, including in regular inflection, depends importantly on left basal ganglia procedural memory circuits, whereas irregular and other lexicalized forms are memorized in declarative memory. Since females tend to show declarative memory advantages as compared to males, the model further posits that females should tend to rely on this system for regulars, which can be stored as lexicalized chunks. We tested non-demented male and female PD patients and healthy control participants on the intensively studied paradigm of English regular and irregular past-tense production. Mixed-effects regression revealed PD deficits only at regular inflection, only in male patients. The degree of left basal ganglia degeneration, as reflected by right-side hypokinesia, predicted only regular inflection, and only in male patients. Left-side hypokinesia did not show this pattern. Past-tense frequency effects suggested that the female patients retrieved regular as well as irregular past-tense forms from declarative memory, whereas the males retrieved only irregulars. Sensitivity analyses showed that the pattern of findings was robust. The results, which are consistent with the declarative/procedural model, suggest a grammatical deficit in PD due to left basal ganglia degeneration, with a relative sparing of lexical retrieval. Female patients appear to compensate for this deficit by relying on chunks stored in declarative memory. More generally, the study elucidates the neurocognition of inflectional morphology and provides evidence that sex can influence how language is computed in the mind and brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jana Reifegerste
- Department of Psychology, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Münster, Germany; Brain and Language Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA; Potsdam Research Institute for Multilingualism, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
| | - Ivy V Estabrooke
- Brain and Language Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA; Center for Science and Technology Policy, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Lauren E Russell
- Brain and Language Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - João Veríssimo
- Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Karim Johari
- Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
| | - Barbara Wilmarth
- Translational Neurotherapeutics Program, Laboratory for Dementia and Parkinsonism, Department of Neurology, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA; Movement Disorders Clinic, Department of Neurology, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Fernando L Pagan
- Translational Neurotherapeutics Program, Laboratory for Dementia and Parkinsonism, Department of Neurology, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA; Movement Disorders Clinic, Department of Neurology, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Charbel Moussa
- Translational Neurotherapeutics Program, Laboratory for Dementia and Parkinsonism, Department of Neurology, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Michael T Ullman
- Brain and Language Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA.
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Intention to learn modulates the impact of reward and punishment on sequence learning. Sci Rep 2020; 10:8906. [PMID: 32483289 PMCID: PMC7264311 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-65853-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2019] [Accepted: 04/20/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
In real-world settings, learning is often characterised as intentional: learners are aware of the goal during the learning process, and the goal of learning is readily dissociable from the awareness of what is learned. Recent evidence has shown that reward and punishment (collectively referred to as valenced feedback) are important factors that influence performance during learning. Presently, however, studies investigating the impact of valenced feedback on skill learning have only considered unintentional learning, and therefore the interaction between intentionality and valenced feedback has not been systematically examined. The present study investigated how reward and punishment impact behavioural performance when participants are instructed to learn in a goal-directed fashion (i.e. intentionally) rather than unintentionally. In Experiment 1, participants performed the serial response time task with reward, punishment, or control feedback and were instructed to ignore the presence of the sequence, i.e., learn unintentionally. Experiment 2 followed the same design, but participants were instructed to intentionally learn the sequence. We found that punishment significantly benefitted performance during learning only when participants learned unintentionally, and we observed no effect of punishment when participants learned intentionally. Thus, the impact of feedback on performance may be influenced by goal of the learner.
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Wong AL, Lindquist MA, Haith AM, Krakauer JW. Explicit knowledge enhances motor vigor and performance: motivation versus practice in sequence tasks. J Neurophysiol 2015; 114:219-32. [PMID: 25904709 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00218.2015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2015] [Accepted: 04/19/2015] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Motor skill learning involves a practice-induced improvement in the speed and/or accuracy of a discrete movement. It is often thought that paradigms involving repetitive practice of discrete movements performed in a fixed sequence result in a further enhancement of skill beyond practice of the individual movements in a random order. Sequence-specific performance improvements could, however, arise without practice as a result of knowledge of the sequence order; knowledge could operate by either enabling advanced motor planning of the known sequence elements or by increasing overall motivation. Here, we examined how knowledge and practice contribute to performance of a sequence of movements. We found that explicit knowledge provided through instruction produced practice-independent improvements in reaction time and execution quality. These performance improvements occurred even for random elements within a partially known sequence, indicative of a general motivational effect rather than a sequence-specific effect of advanced planning. This motivational effect suggests that knowledge influences performance in a manner analogous to reward. Additionally, practice led to similar improvements in execution quality for both known and random sequences. The lack of interaction between knowledge and practice suggests that any skill acquisition occurring during discrete sequence tasks arises solely from practice of the individual movement elements, independent of their order. We conclude that performance improvements in discrete sequence tasks arise from the combination of knowledge-based motivation and sequence-independent practice; investigating this interplay between cognition and movement may facilitate a greater understanding of the acquisition of skilled behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aaron L Wong
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland;
| | - Martin A Lindquist
- Department of Biostatistics, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Adrian M Haith
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - John W Krakauer
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland; Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
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Song S, Gotts SJ, Dayan E, Cohen LG. Practice structure improves unconscious transitional memories by increasing synchrony in a premotor network. J Cogn Neurosci 2015; 27:1503-12. [PMID: 25761004 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_00796] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Sequence learning relies on formation of unconscious transitional and conscious ordinal memories. The influence of practice type on formation of these memories that compose skill and systems level neural substrates is not known. Here, we studied learning of transitional and ordinal memories in participants trained on motor sequences while scanned using fMRI. Practice structure was varied or grouped (mixing or grouping sequences during training, respectively). Memory was assessed 30 min and 1 week later. Varied practice improved transitional memory and enhanced coupling of the dorsal premotor cortex with thalamus, cerebellum, and lingual and cingulate regions and greater transitional memory correlated with this coupling. Thus, varied practice improves unconscious transitional memories in proportion to coupling within a cortico-subcortical network linked to premotor cortex. This result indicates that practice structure influences unconscious transitional memory formation and identifies underlying systems level mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Eran Dayan
- National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
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Abstract
Humans and other mammals learn sequences of movements by splitting them into smaller “chunks.” Such chunks are defined by the faster speed of performance of groups of movements. The purpose of this report is to determine how conscious intent to learn impacts chunking, an issue that remains unknown. Here, we studied 80 subjects who either with or without conscious intent learned a motor sequence. Performance was tested before and up to 1-wk post-training. Chunk formation, carryover of chunks, and concatenation of chunks into longer chunks, all measures of motor chunking success, were determined at each time-point. We found that formation, carryover, and concatenation of chunks were comparable across groups and did not improve over the training session and subsequent testing times. Thus, motor learning progressed in the absence of improvements in chunking irrespective of conscious intent. These data suggest that mechanisms other than chunking contribute to successful motor learning with and without conscious intent.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sunbin Song
- Human Cortical Physiology and Stroke Neurorehabilitation Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA
| | - Leonardo Cohen
- Human Cortical Physiology and Stroke Neurorehabilitation Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA
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