Spontaneous neural activity predicts individual differences in performance
Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: We each have particular strengths—some of us are good at math and others are good at language—that vary from one person to another. Less appreciated is the fact that individual differences also extend to performing what appear on the surface to be simple perceptual tasks, like learning to detect one visual form among an array of visually similar forms (1, 2). Neurophysiological studies in awake monkeys and functional MRI (fMRI) studies in humans have provided considerable information about the neural changes that accompany visual perceptual learning—including that learning is highly specific to the retinotopic location of the trained stimulus—making it an ideal model system for studying cortical plasticity (3). Typically, there is also a large amount of intersubject performance variability, making it an ideal model for exploring the neural correlates of individual differences. However, other than good learners showing greater neural activity during the first learning trials than poor learners (2), little is known about the neural underpinnings of individual differences in perceptual learning. In PNAS, Baldassarre et al. (4) present a unique approach to this topic by evaluating the relationship between visual perceptual learning and slowly (<0.1 Hz) fluctuating, spontaneous neural activity recorded during an fMRI resting-state scan 1–2 days before learning.
Authors: Alex Martin, Kelly Anne Barnes, W. Dale Stevens
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: National Institutes of Health
OpenAlex ID: W2105258328