The N2pc Is Increased by Perceptual Learning but Is Unnecessary for the Transfer of Learning

An An,Meirong Sun,Yun Wang,Fang Wang,Yulong Ding,Yan Song,Michael H Herzog

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0034826

An An, Meirong Sun + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0034826

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Journal: PloS one	Publication Date: Apr 2, 2012
Citations: 58	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Beijing Normal University, Sun Yat-sen University

Abstract

BackgroundPractice improves human performance in many psychophysical paradigms. This kind of improvement is thought to be the evidence of human brain plasticity. However, the changes that occur in the brain are not fully understood.Methodology/Principal FindingsThe N2pc component has previously been associated with visuo-spatial attention. In this study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate whether the N2pc component changed during long-term visual perceptual learning. Thirteen subjects completed several days of training in an orientation discrimination task, and were given a final test 30 days later. The results showed that behavioral thresholds significantly decreased across training sessions, and this decrement was also present in the untrained visual field. ERPs showed training significantly increased the N2pc amplitude, and this effect could be maintained for up to 30 days. However, the increase in N2pc was specific to the trained visual field.Conclusion/SignificanceTraining caused spatial attention to be increasingly focused on the target positions. However, this process was not transferrable from the trained to the untrained visual field, which suggests that the increase in N2pc may be unnecessary for behavioral improvements in the untrained visual field.

Highlights

The perceptual performance of human beings can be improved through repeated training
Various theories with different emphases have been proposed to explain the process of perceptual learning., Some have suggested that learning-induced improvement may occur at the low level of the visual cortex in the adult human brain, because many behavioral studies show that learning-induced improvements are specific to the stimulus attributes, such as orientation [1,11,5,12] and location [13]
When examining the S7 data alone, we found that there were no significant differences between the thresholds in the trained and untrained visual field (t13 = 21.97, p = 0.07), suggesting that the performance improvement transferred almost completely from the trained to the untrained visual field after long-term training

Summary

Introduction

The perceptual performance of human beings can be improved through repeated training. This improvement has been found in a variety of visual tasks, such as texture discrimination [1], motion direction [2,3], spatial phase [4], hyperacuity [5] orientation discrimination [6] and visual search [7,8,9,10] From these earlier studies, various theories with different emphases have been proposed to explain the process of perceptual learning., Some have suggested that learning-induced improvement may occur at the low level of the visual cortex in the adult human brain, because many behavioral studies show that learning-induced improvements are specific to the stimulus attributes, such as orientation [1,11,5,12] and location [13]. The changes that occur in the brain are not fully understood

Methods

Results

Conclusion