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Perceptual learning modifies the functional specializations of visual cortical areas

Nihong Chen,Peng Cai,Tiangang Zhou,B. Thompson,F. Fang

Published 2016 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

ABSTRACT

Significance Using transcranial magnetic stimulation and functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques, we demonstrate here that the transfer of perceptual learning from a task involving coherent motion to a task involving noisy motion can induce a functional substitution of V3A (one of the visual areas in the extrastriate visual cortex) for MT+ (middle temporal/medial superior temporal cortex) to process noisy motion. This finding suggests that perceptual learning in visually normal adults shapes the functional architecture of the brain in a much more pronounced way than previously believed. The effects of perceptual learning extend far beyond the retuning of specific neural populations that mediate performance of the trained task. Learning could dramatically modify the inherent functional specializations of visual cortical areas and dynamically reweight their contributions to perceptual decisions based on their representational qualities. Training can improve performance of perceptual tasks. This phenomenon, known as perceptual learning, is strongest for the trained task and stimulus, leading to a widely accepted assumption that the associated neuronal plasticity is restricted to brain circuits that mediate performance of the trained task. Nevertheless, learning does transfer to other tasks and stimuli, implying the presence of more widespread plasticity. Here, we trained human subjects to discriminate the direction of coherent motion stimuli. The behavioral learning effect substantially transferred to noisy motion stimuli. We used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the transfer of learning. The TMS experiment revealed dissociable, causal contributions of V3A (one of the visual areas in the extrastriate visual cortex) and MT+ (middle temporal/medial superior temporal cortex) to coherent and noisy motion processing. Surprisingly, the contribution of MT+ to noisy motion processing was replaced by V3A after perceptual training. The fMRI experiment complemented and corroborated the TMS finding. Multivariate pattern analysis showed that, before training, among visual cortical areas, coherent and noisy motion was decoded most accurately in V3A and MT+, respectively. After training, both kinds of motion were decoded most accurately in V3A. Our findings demonstrate that the effects of perceptual learning extend far beyond the retuning of specific neural populations for the trained stimuli. Learning could dramatically modify the inherent functional specializations of visual cortical areas and dynamically reweight their contributions to perceptual decisions based on their representational qualities. These neural changes might serve as the neural substrate for the transfer of perceptual learning.

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