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Extent and limits of callosal plasticity: presence of disconnection symptoms in callosal agenesis.

Although earlier studies have emphasized the absence of 'split-brain' symptoms in callosal agenesis patients, the notion of an 'asymptomatic' acallosal brain has lately been challenged. We report a number of findings that are indicative of an interruption of interhemispheric communication and integration in individuals lacking the corpus callosum. Several groups of patients with callosal pathology (acallosals, patients with commissurotomy or callosotomy, either complete or partial) were compared to matched controls. Interhemispheric transfer was tested in two different experiments involving pointing to a light source while maintaining central fixation. In the first experiment, a learning paradigm was used to measure transfer of a motor skill from the trained to the untrained hand. In the second experiment, subjects pointed to visual targets at different locations on a perimeter. Midline fusion, a recurrent theme when describing callosal function, was assessed using tasks which included depth perception with binocular and/or monocular cues, two-point discrimination thresholds and sound localization in the peri-central and lateral fields. Subjects with callosal pathology were impaired on all tasks involving transfer of motor and visuo-spatial skills and on some of the tasks requiring sensory integration of visual and tactile information across the body midline. We conclude that these functions require an intact corpus callosum since none of these deficits were seen in controls equated for IQ.

Adolescent↗

Preschoolers' use of form class cues to learn descriptive proper names.

This study examined 3- and 4-year-old preschoolers' ability to learn proper names containing familiar descriptions. Children saw a novel creature with a familiar property (it was red) and heard either an adjective ("This is a red one") or a descriptive proper name ("This is Mr. Red"). The creature was then transformed, losing the property (e.g., it became green). Children had to extend the word to either the transformed original creature or a new creature bearing the original property (another red creature). Children, especially 4-year-olds, extended the adjective to the new creature but were significantly more likely to extend the proper name to the original creature. Lexical form class cues provided potent information about word meaning, directing preschoolers to reinterpret familiar descriptive terms (adjectives) as homophonic terms designating unique individuals (proper names).

Association Learning↗

On pedagogy.

Humans are adapted to spontaneously transfer relevant cultural knowledge to conspecifics and to fast-learn the contents of such teaching through a human-specific social learning system called 'pedagogy' (Csibra & Gergely, 2006). Pedagogical knowledge transfer is triggered by specific communicative cues (such as eye-contact, contingent reactivity, the prosodic pattern of 'motherese', and being addressed by one's own name). Infants show special sensitivity to such 'ostensive' cues that signal the teacher's communicative intention to manifest new and relevant knowledge about a referent object. Pedagogy offers a novel functional perspective to interpret a variety of early emerging triadic communicative interactions between adults and infants about novel objects they are jointly attending to. The currently dominant interpretation of such triadic communications (mindreading) holds that infants interpret others' object-directed manifestations in terms of subjective mental states (such as emotions, dispositions, or intentions) that they attribute to the other person's mind. We contrast the pedagogical versus the mindreading account in a new study testing 14-month-olds' interpretation of others' object-directed emotion expressions observed in a communicative cueing context. We end by discussing the far-reaching implications of the pedagogical perspective for a wide range of early social-cognitive competences, and for providing new directions for future research on child development.

Analysis of Variance↗

Two tests of instance-based and abstract rule-based accounts of invariant learning.

Two manipulations are argued to distinguish between instance-based and abstract rule-based accounts of invariant learning. Three experiments examined the effects of manipulating the type of invariant feature in the learning set, and the type of training schedules prior to test. In line with traditional research, selection bias at test was present when the invariant was the consistent inclusion of a stimulus item in the learning set. However, the degree of bias was identical when the invariant was the consistent exclusion of the stimulus item. In addition, negative transfer of training was observed when subjects were trained on one learning set and then shifted training to the opposite learning set, but no positive transfer of training was observed when subjects were trained on one learning set and then continued training using the same learning set. These results are argued to be evidence for instance-based accounts of invariant learning.

Adult↗

Effector-related sequence learning in a bimanual-bisequential serial reaction time task.

In a bimanual-bisequential version of the serial reaction time (SRT) task participants performed two uncorrelated key-press sequences simultaneously, one with fingers of the left hand and the other with fingers of the right hand. Participants responded to location-based imperative stimuli. When two such stimuli appeared in each trial, the results suggest independent learning of the two sequences and the occurrence of intermanual transfer. Following extended practice in Experiment 2, transfer of acquired sequence knowledge was not complete. Also in Experiment 2, when only one stimulus appeared in each trial specifying the responses for both hands so that there was no basis for separate stimulus-stimulus or separate response-effect learning, independent sequence learning was again evident, but there was no intermanual transfer at all. These findings suggest the existence of two mechanisms of sequence learning, one hand-related stimulus-based and the other motor-based, with only the former allowing for intermanual transfer.

Adult↗

Self-invented addition strategies by children with mental retardation.

Children with mental retardation often seem incapable of self-initiated learning. A training experiment was designed to determine whether such children could spontaneously invent more efficient addition strategies for calculating simple sums; apply these strategies to larger, unpracticed combinations; and retain these strategies after 5 months. An experimental group and a control group were shown a basic concrete counting procedure. Over 6 months, the experimental group was given regular opportunities to practice computing sums. Many of them invented calculational short cuts. On immediate and delayed posttests, they used significantly more sophisticated strategies than did control participants. Results suggest that children with mental retardation can invent, transfer, and retain strategies for learning tasks.

Adolescent↗

Task-specific perceptual learning on speed and direction discrimination.

Twenty-two nai;ve undergraduates participated in a psychophysical experiment designed to elucidate the neural events that allow us to see subtle motion differences. Half of the subjects practiced extensively on a direction-discrimination task while the other half practiced extensively on a speed-discrimination task. The stimulus conditions in the two groups were identical. The results indicated that the learning curves for direction discrimination were significantly steeper than those for speed discrimination. Additionally, the significant practice-based improvements on each motion task did not transfer to the other motion task. The different learning rates and the lack of transfer suggest that the neural events mediating speed discrimination are at least partially independent from those mediating direction discrimination, and vice versa, even under identical stimulus conditions.

Discrimination Learning↗

The symmetry of interlimb transfer depends on workspace locations.

We have previously shown that when both arms learn visuo-motor tasks within the shared midline workspace, transfer becomes asymmetrical: initial direction information only transfers from the nondominant to the dominant arm, whereas the final position information only transfers from the dominant to the nondominant arm. We now examine whether symmetry of interlimb transfer depends on the location of workspace provided for the two arms, by investigating the pattern of interlimb transfer when each arm adapts to a 30 degree rotation at its ipsilateral workspace. All subjects performed center-out reaching movements while adapting to a 30 degree rotation in the visual display. Half the subjects performed with the nondominant arm first and then the dominant arm, while the other half performed with the dominant arm first and then the nondominant arm. To assess transfer, naïve performance and the performance following opposite arm adaptation were compared for each arm separately. Our results indicate unambiguous transfer that is symmetrical: both arms benefited from opposite arm training in terms of initial direction control. In terms of final position information, neither arm benefited from opposite arm training. This clearly demonstrates that symmetry of interlimb transfer depends on the location of workspace provided for the two arms. Our findings suggest that when visuo-motor tasks are performed within a shared midline workspace, the nondominant controller is selectively inhibited from access to dominant controller information, due to a certain competition between the two limb/hemisphere systems that is introduced by the shared nature of the workspace.

Adolescent↗

Spontaneous transfer of matching by infant chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Four infant chimpanzees learned a matching-to-sample task when only two training stimuli were used. They then spontaneously transferred the matching concept to novel items, including three-dimensional objects and fabric swatches, without any experimenter-provided differential feedback. These results support the view that the matching concept is broadly construed by chimpanzees from the beginning and does not depend upon explicit training.

Animals↗

Affective associative learning modifies the sensory perception of nociceptive stimuli without participant's awareness.

The present experiment examined the possibility to change the sensory and/or the affective perception of thermal stimuli by an emotional associative learning procedure known to operate without participants' awareness (evaluative conditioning). In a mixed design, an aversive conditioning procedure was compared between subjects to an appetitive conditioning procedure. Both groups were also compared within-subject to a control condition (neutral conditioning). The aversive conditioning was induced by associating non-painful and painful thermal stimuli - delivered on the right forearm - with unpleasant slides. The appetitive conditioning consisted in an association between thermal stimuli - also delivered on the right forearm - and pleasant slides. The control condition consisted in an association between thermal stimuli - delivered for all participants on the left forearm - and neutral slides. The effects of the conditioning procedures on the sensory and affective dimensions were evaluated with visual analogue scale (VAS)-intensity and VAS-unpleasantness. Startle reflex was used as a physiological index of emotional valence disposition. Results confirmed that no participants were aware of the conditioning procedure. After unpleasant slides (aversive conditioning), non-painful and painful thermal stimuli were judged more intense and more unpleasant than when preceded by neutral slides (control condition) or pleasant slides (appetitive conditioning). Despite a strong correlation between the intensity and the unpleasantness scales, effects were weaker for the affective scale and, became statistically non-significant when VAS-intensity was used as covariate. This experiment shows that it is possible to modify the perception of intensity of thermal stimuli by a non-conscious learning procedure based on the transfer of the valence of the unconditioned stimuli (pleasant or unpleasant slides) towards the conditioned stimuli (non-painful and painful thermal stimuli). These results plead for a conception of pain as a conscious output of complex informational processes all of which are not accessible to participants' awareness. Mechanisms by which affective input may influence sensory experience and clinical implications of the present study are discussed.

Adolescent↗

Instrumental and Pavlovian incentive processes have dissociable effects on components of a heterogeneous instrumental chain.

Two experiments compared the effects of Pavlovian stimuli and incentive learning on the performance of a heterogeneous chain of instrumental actions. Using a Pavlovian-instrumental transfer design, the authors found that only a stimulus paired with the same outcome as that earned by performance of the chain produced positive transfer, an effect that was restricted to the action in the chain most proximal to reward delivery. In contrast, after a shift to a nondeprived state, only animals that had previously consumed the instrumental outcome when they were nondeprived decreased instrumental performance. Furthermore, this effect of the incentive learning treatment was limited to performance of the distal action. Together these data suggest that Pavlovian and instrumental incentive manipulations have dissociable effects on instrumental performance.

Animals↗

Perceptual learning in visual conjunction search.

Perceptual learning in colour/orientation visual conjunction search was examined in five experiments. Good transfer occurred to other conjunction arrays when only one element of the conjunction (either colour or orientation) was changed. When both elements (colour and orientation) were changed, but the same feature spaces were used (i.e. other colours and orientations) or when a new dimension was introduced to the transfer task (shapes instead of orientation), transfer was poor. The results suggest that perceptual learning of visual conjunction search is constrained mainly by stimulus parameters rather than by changes in cognitive strategies which are common to all search tasks. Contrary to other reports we found little evidence of long-term retention of learning.

Discrimination Learning↗

Transfer effects of successive discrimination-reversal training in chimpanzees.

Chimpanzees receiving successive discrimination-reversal training on a single pair of stimuli transferred almost perfectly to two additional reversal tasks and to a "learning-set" series of 180 discrimination problems. A "win-stay, lose-shift" strategy, however it is acquired, seems to be a sufficient basis for one-trial discrimination learning.

Animals↗