Learning In Adults Research Articles

Implicit Motor Sequence Learning in Adults with and Without Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD)

Implicit Motor Sequence Learning in Adults with and Without Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD)

Age-related changes to electroencephalographic markers of visuomotor error processing and learning in prism adaptation

Aging is associated with changes in cognitive function, including declines in learning, memory, and executive function. Prism adaptation (PA) is a useful paradigm to measure changes in explicit and implicit mechanisms of visuo-motor learning with age, but the neural correlates are not well understood. In the present study, we used PA to investigate visuo-motor learning and error processing in older adults. Twenty older adults (56–85 yrs) and 20 younger adults (18–33 yrs) underwent a goal-oriented reaching task while wearing prism goggles as continuous EEG was recorded to examine neural correlates of error detection. We examined behavioural measures of PA, as well as ERP components previously found associated with the early and late phases of adaptation to visual distortion caused by the prism goggles. Our results indicate important age-related behavioural and neurophysiological differences. Older adults reached more slowly than younger adults but showed the same accuracy throughout the prism exposure. Older adults also displayed larger aftereffects, indicating preserved visuomotor adaptation. EEG results indicated similar initial error processing in older and younger adults, as measured by the feedback error related negativity (FRN). As seen previously in young adults, the P3a and P3b declined over the prism exposure phase in both groups. Older adults displayed reduced P3a amplitude compared to the younger group in the early phase of adaptation, however, suggesting reduced attentional orienting. Finally, the older group exhibited a greater P3b amplitude compared to the younger group in the later phases of adaptation, potentially a marker of enhanced context updating underlying spatial realignment, leading to their larger aftereffect. Implications for age-related learning differences and clinical applications are discussed.

Early motor skill acquisition in healthy older adults: brain correlates of the learning process.

Motor skill learning is a crucial process at all ages. However, healthy aging is often accompanied by a reduction in motor learning capabilities. This study characterized the brain dynamics of healthy older adults during motor skill acquisition and identified brain regions associated with changes in different components of performance. Forty-three subjects participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging study during which they learned a sequential grip force modulation task. We evaluated the continuous changes in brain activation during practice as well as the continuous performance-related changes in brain activation. Practice of the motor skill was accompanied by increased activation in secondary motor and associative areas. In contrast, visual and frontal areas were less recruited as task execution progressed. Subjects showed significant improvements on the motor skill. While faster execution relied on parietal areas and was inversely associated with frontal activation, accuracy was related to activation in primary and secondary motor areas. Better performance was achieved by the contribution of parietal regions responsible for efficient visuomotor processing and cortical motor regions involved in the correct action selection. The results add to the understanding of online motor learning in healthy older adults, showing complementary roles of specific networks for implementing changes in precision and speed.

Meaningful learning: motivations of older adults in serious games.

Social sustainability is the generation of significant behaviors through balanced levels of education, learning and awareness so that the population has a good standard of living, achieves self-improvement and supports society. This can be achieved with various strategies, one of which is learning through games, which has gained popularity in recent years due to positive results. This is effectively achieved through serious gaming, which is growing steadily, mostly in education and healthcare. This type of strategy has been typically used in young populations with a transparent interaction with technological processes that facilitate its application. However, one cannot neglect other populations such as the elderly, who may experience a technology gap and may not perceive this type of initiative in the best light. The purpose of this article is to identify the different motivations that can encourage older adults to use serious games to encourage learning processes through technology. For this purpose, different previous research on gaming experiences with older adults has been identified, from which it was possible to categorize a series of factors that motivate this population. Subsequently, we represented these factors by means of a model of motivation for the elderly and, to be able to use it, we have defined a set of heuristics based on this model. Finally, we used the heuristics by means of a questionnaire to evaluate the design of serious gaming for older adults, obtaining positive results for the use of these elements to guide the design and construction of serious games for learning in older adults.

Imagery training of motor actions in children and adolescents: a meta-analysis

ABSTRACT Imagery training is well-established in sports, rehabilitation, and work settings. Both classic and recent meta-analyses confirm that it can improve motor performance and promote motor learning in adults. Findings from studies focusing on children and adolescents, however, are ambiguous, and it is not clear whether imagery training has an impact on performance and learning in individuals of younger ages. Given that the potential impact of imagery training in children and adolescents has yet to be determined, we conducted a meta-analysis to extend knowledge on the effectiveness of imagery training in this population. We included imagery training studies investigating healthy children or adolescents at an age of 6–18 and focusing on a motor task, which resulted in 19 studies and 110 effect sizes. Our analysis revealed an overall medium positive effect for imagery training of Cohen’s d = 0.494, 95% CI [0.287, 0.701]. The results demonstrate that imagery training can improve motor performance in children and adolescents. Future research is needed to further differentiate the effects across age, task, or developmental aspects, and to provide more elaborate recommendations for applied settings such as physical education, rehabilitation, or competitive sports.

Acute stress alters probabilistic reversal learning in healthy male adults.

Behavioural adaptation is a fundamental cognitive ability, ensuring survival by allowing for flexible adjustment to changing environments. In laboratory settings, behavioural adaptation can be measured with reversal learning paradigms requiring agents to adjust reward learning to stimulus-action-outcome contingency changes. Stress is found to alter flexibility of reward learning, but effect directionality is mixed across studies. Here, we used model-based functional MRI (fMRI) in a within-subjects design to investigate the effect of acute psychosocial stress on flexible behavioural adaptation. Healthy male volunteers (n= 28) did a reversal learning task during fMRI in two sessions, once after the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), a validated psychosocial stress induction method, and once after a control condition. Stress effects on choice behaviour were investigated using multilevel generalized linear models and computational models describing different learning processes that potentially generated the data. Computational models were fitted using a hierarchical Bayesian approach, and model-derived reward prediction errors (RPE) were used as fMRI regressors. We found that acute psychosocial stress slightly increased correct response rates. Model comparison revealed that double-update learning with altered choice temperature under stress best explained the observed behaviour. In the brain, model-derived RPEs were correlated with BOLD signals in striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Striatal RPE signals for win trials were stronger during stress compared with the control condition. Our study suggests that acute psychosocial stress could enhance reversal learning and RPE brain responses in healthy male participants and provides a starting point to explore these effects further in a more diverse population.

Electric field simulations of transcranial direct current stimulation in children with perinatal stroke.

Perinatal stroke (PS) is a focal vascular brain injury and the leading cause of hemiparetic cerebral palsy. Motor impairments last a lifetime but treatments are limited. Transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) may enhance motor learning in adults but tDCS effects on motor learning are less studied in children. Imaging-based simulations of tDCS-induced electric fields (EF) suggest differences in the developing brain compared to adults but have not been applied to common pediatric disease states. We created estimates of tDCS-induced EF strength using five tDCS montages targeting the motor system in children with PS [arterial ischemic stroke (AIS) or periventricular infarction (PVI)] and typically developing controls (TDC) aged 6-19 years to explore associates between simulation values and underlying anatomy. Simulations were performed using SimNIBS https://simnibs.github.io/simnibs/build/html/index.html using T1, T2, and diffusion-weighted images. After tissue segmentation and tetrahedral mesh generation, tDCS-induced EF was estimated based on the finite element model (FEM). Five 1mA tDCS montages targeting motor function in the paretic (non-dominant) hand were simulated. Estimates of peak EF strength, EF angle, field focality, and mean EF in motor cortex (M1) were extracted for each montage and compared between groups. Simulations for eighty-three children were successfully completed (21 AIS, 30 PVI, 32 TDC). Conventional tDCS montages utilizing anodes over lesioned cortex had higher peak EF strength values for the AIS group compared to TDC. These montages showed lower mean EF strength within target M1 regions suggesting that peaks were not necessarily localized to motor network-related targets. EF angle was lower for TDC compared to PS groups for a subset of montages. Montages using anodes over lesioned cortex were more sensitive to variations in underlying anatomy (lesion and tissue volumes) than those using cathodes over non-lesioned cortex. Individualized patient-centered tDCS EF simulations are prudent for clinical trial planning and may provide insight into the efficacy of tDCS interventions in children with PS.

Working memory load impairs transfer learning in human adults

Transfer of learning refers to successful application of previously acquired knowledge or skills to novel settings. Although working memory (WM) is thought to play a role in transfer learning, direct evidence of the effect of limitations in WM on transfer learning is lacking. To investigate, we used an acquired equivalence paradigm that included tests of association and transfer learning. The effects of imposing an acute WM limitation on young adults was tested (within-subjects design: N = 27 adults; Mage = 24 years) by conducting learning transfer tests concurrent with a secondary task that required carrying a spatial WM load when performing the learned/transfer trial (Load condition) to acutely limit WM resources or no WM load (No-Load condition; WM was unloaded prior to performing the learned/transfer trial). Analyses showed that although success on the transfer trials was high in the No-Load condition, performance dropped to chance in the Load condition. Performance on tests of learned associations remained high in both conditions. These results indicate that transfer of learning depends on access to WM resources and suggest that even healthy young individuals may be affected in their ability to cross-utilize knowledge when cognitive resources become scarce, such as when engaging in two tasks simultaneously (e.g., using satellite navigation while driving).

Assessment of learning and memory impairments in adults with predominately inattentive versus combined presentation attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

This cross-sectional study compared adults diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder-Inattentive (ADHD-I) and ADHD-Combined (ADHD-C) presentations with a non-ADHD group on verbal and visual learning and delayed recall using the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) and Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R), respectively. Data from 380 predominately college student adult outpatients were used, with 155 who met criteria for ADHD-I, 165 who met criteria for ADHD-C, and 60 who did not meet criteria for ADHD but were diagnosed with a primary depressive or anxiety disorder or received no diagnosis. Each patient was administered the RAVLT and BVMT-R as part of a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation. Significant main effects of study group were found, such that patients with ADHD-C demonstrated worse learning and delayed recall of both verbal and visual information than patients with ADHD-I and the non-ADHD group. Patients with ADHD-I performed comparably to the non-ADHD group, apart from visual learning and delayed recall. Notably, more patients in the ADHD groups had possible or probable learning and memory impairment compared to the non-ADHD group. Findings were consistent with previous research indicating that those with ADHD exhibit poorer verbal and visual learning and delayed recall than those without ADHD.

Pragmatics aid referent disambiguation and word learning in young children and adults.

How do children succeed in learning a word? Research has shown robustly that, in ambiguous labeling situations, young children assume novel labels to refer to unfamiliar rather than familiar objects. However, ongoing debates center on the underlying mechanism: Is this behavior based on lexical constraints, guided by pragmatic reasoning, or simply driven by children's attraction to novelty? Additionally, recent research has questioned whether children's disambiguation leads to long-term learning or rather indicates an attentional shift in the moment of the conversation. Thus, we conducted a pre-registered online study with 2- and 3-year-olds and adults. Participants were presented with unknown objects as potential referents for a novel word. Across conditions, we manipulated whether the only difference between both objects was their relative novelty to the participant or whether, in addition, participants were provided with pragmatic information that indicated which object the speaker referred to. We tested participants' immediate referent selection and their retention after 5min. Results revealed that when given common ground information both age groups inferred the correct referent with high success and enhanced behavioral certainty. Without this information, object novelty alone did not guide their selection. After 5min, adults remembered their previous selections above chance in both conditions, while children only showed reliable learning in the pragmatic condition. The pattern of results indicates how pragmatics may aid referent disambiguation and learning in both adults and young children. From early ontogeny on, children's social-cognitive understanding may guide their communicative interactions and support their language acquisition. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: We tested how 2-3-year-olds and adults resolve referential ambiguity without any lexical cues. In the pragmatic context both age groups disambiguated novel word-object-mappings, while object novelty alone did not guide their referent selection. In the pragmatic context, children also showed increased certainty in disambiguation and retained new word-object-mappings over time. These findings contribute to the ongoing debate on whether children learn words on the basis of domain-specific constraints, lower-level associative mechanisms, or pragmatic inferences.

A matter of habit? Stressful life events and cognitive flexibility in 15-month-olds

Exposure to chronic stress is associated with habitual learning in adults. We studied the origins of this association by examining the link between stressful life events and infant cognitive flexibility. The final sample consisted of N = 72 fifteen-month-old infants and their mothers. Mothers completed a survey on pre- and postnatal negative life events. To assess chronic stress physiologically, infant and maternal hair cortisol concentrations were determined for cortisol accumulation during the past 3 months. Each infant participated in two cognitive tasks in the laboratory. An instrumental learning task tested infants’ ability to disengage from a habituated action when this action became ineffective (Seehagen et al., 2015). An age-adequate version of the A-not-B task tested infants’ ability to find a toy at location B after repeatedly finding it at location A. Correlations between cortisol concentrations and postnatal negative life events (number, perceived impact) did not yield significance. Infant and maternal hair cortisol concentrations were not correlated. Infants’ ability to shift to a new action in either task, controlled for acute stress, correlated neither with pre- and postnatal negative life events nor with cortisol concentrations. Taken together, these results indicate that the potential link between long-term stress exposure and cognitive flexibility might not be present in samples with low levels of psychosocial stress.

Age Differences in Learning-Related Neurophysiological Changes

Abstract: Research in young adults has demonstrated that neurophysiological measures are able to provide insight into learning processes. However, to date, it remains unclear whether neurophysiological changes during learning in older adults are comparable to those in younger adults. The current study addressed this issue by exploring age differences in changes over time in a range of neurophysiological outcome measures collected during visuomotor sequence learning. Specifically, measures of electroencephalography (EEG), skin conductance, heart rate, heart rate variability, respiration rate, and eye-related measures, in addition to behavioral performance measures, were collected in younger ( Mage = 27.24 years) and older adults ( Mage = 58.06 years) during learning. Behavioral responses became more accurate over time in both age groups during visuomotor sequence learning. Yet, older adults needed more time in each trial to enhance the precision of their movement. Changes in EEG during learning demonstrated a stronger increase in theta power in older compared to younger adults and a decrease in gamma power in older adults while increasing slightly in younger adults. No such differences between the two age groups were found on other neurophysiological outcome measures, suggesting changes in brain activity during learning to be more sensitive to age differences than changes in peripheral physiology. Additionally, differences in which neurophysiological outcomes were associated with behavioral performance on the learning task were found between younger and older adults. This indicates that the neurophysiological underpinnings of learning may differ between younger and older adults. Therefore, the current findings highlight the importance of taking age into account when aiming to gain insight into behavioral performance through neurophysiology during learning.

Influences of Aerobic Exercise on Motor Sequence Learning and Corticomotor Excitability in People With Parkinson’s Disease

Background People with Parkinson’s disease (PD) are known to have motor learning difficulties. Although numerous studies have demonstrated that a single bout of aerobic exercise (AEX) can facilitate motor learning in non-disabled adults, the same beneficial effect in PD is unknown. Furthermore, associated neuroplastic changes have not been investigated. Objectives This study aimed to determine whether a single bout of aerobic exercise (AEX) can facilitate motor sequence learning in people with PD and to investigate the associated neurophysiological changes. Methods Thirty individuals with PD were recruited and randomized into the exercise group (PD + AEX) and non-exercise group (PD − AEX). At the first visit, corticomotor excitability was assessed using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). All participants then performed a serial reaction time task (SRTT) followed by 20 minutes of moderately-high intensity aerobic exercise (AEX) for the PD + AEX group or rest for the PD − AEX group. The SRTT and TMS were reevaluated at 3 time points: immediately after aerobic exercise (AEX) or rest, on the second day after practice (D2), and a week after practice (D7). Results Both groups showed improvement throughout practice. At retention, the PD + AEX group showed improved SRTT performance on D7 compared to D2 (P = .001), while the PD − AEX group showed no change in performance. TMS results showed that the PD + AEX group had significantly higher corticomotor excitability than the PD − AEX group on D7. Conclusion A single session of aerobic exercise (AEX) could enhance motor sequence learning and induce neuroplastic changes. Clinicians can consider providing aerobic exercise (AEX) after motor task training for people with PD. Clinical registration: NCT04189887 (ClinicalTrials.gov).

Supplemental Material for Auditory and Visual Category Learning in Children and Adults

Supplemental Material for Auditory and Visual Category Learning in Children and Adults

Effect of skipping breakfast on cognition and learning in young adults

Introduction and Aim: Consumption of breakfast has been commonly associated with cognitive parameters among school children and adolescents. The current cross-sectional study was conducted with the aim to investigate the effect of breakfast consumption/omission on cognitive functioning and learning among young adults.
 
 Materials and Methods: Sixty college-going students, divided into two groups such as breakfast consumers and breakfast skippers were asked to fill a physical condition-based study questionnaire. The results of which were assessed along with the performances given in a collective cognition-based task. The obtained data was retained and later analyzed by GraphPad Prism (version 5).
 
 Results: The overall performance, attentiveness, response time and alertness were significantly higher among the college-going breakfast consumers when compared to breakfast skippers thereby highlighting the importance of daily consumption of breakfast among young adults.
 
 Conclusion: Breakfast consumption is of paramount importance among college going students, omission of which could influence cognitive performances and behavioral aspects. Hence, academic programs should promote nutritionally balanced breakfast consumption among college students.

Modality, presentation, domain and training effects in statistical learning

While several studies suggest that the nature and properties of the input have significant effects on statistical learning, they have rarely been investigated systematically. In order to understand how input characteristics and their interactions impact statistical learning, we explored the effects of modality (auditory vs. visual), presentation type (serial vs. simultaneous), domain (linguistic vs. non-linguistic), and training type (random, starting small, starting big) on artificial grammar learning in young adults (N = 360). With serial presentation of stimuli, learning was more effective in the auditory than in the visual modality. However, with simultaneous presentation of visual and serial presentation of auditory stimuli, the modality effect was not present. We found a significant domain effect as well: a linguistic advantage over nonlinguistic material, which was driven by the domain effect in the auditory modality. Overall, the auditory linguistic condition had an advantage over other modality-domain types. Training types did not have any overall effect on learning; starting big enhanced performance only in the case of serial visual presentation. These results show that input characteristics such as modality, presentation type, domain and training type influence statistical learning, and suggest that their effects are also dependent on the specific stimuli and structure to be learned.

A failure of sleep-dependent consolidation of visuoperceptual procedural learning in young adults with ADHD

ADHD has been associated with cortico-striatal dysfunction that may lead to procedural memory abnormalities. Sleep plays a critical role in consolidating procedural memories, and sleep problems are an integral part of the psychopathology of ADHD. This raises the possibility that altered sleep processes characterizing those with ADHD could contribute to their skill-learning impairments. On this basis, the present study tested the hypothesis that young adults with ADHD have altered sleep-dependent procedural memory consolidation. Participants with ADHD and neurotypicals were trained on a visual discrimination task that has been shown to benefit from sleep. Half of the participants were tested after a 12-h break that included nocturnal sleep (sleep condition), whereas the other half were tested after a 12-h daytime break that did not include sleep (wakefulness condition) to assess the specific contribution of sleep to improvement in task performance. Despite having a similar degree of initial learning, participants with ADHD did not improve in the visual discrimination task following a sleep interval compared to neurotypicals, while they were on par with neurotypicals during the wakefulness condition. These findings represent the first demonstration of a failure in sleep-dependent consolidation of procedural learning in young adults with ADHD. Such a failure is likely to disrupt automatic control routines that are normally provided by the non-declarative memory system, thereby increasing the load on attentional resources of individuals with ADHD.

Effects of age simulation and age on motor sequence learning: Interaction of age-related cognitive and motor decline

Aging is known to lead to decrements in sensory and cognitive functioning and motor performance. The purpose of the present experiment was twofold: a) We assessed the influence of wearing an age simulation suit on motor sequence learning, cognitive speed tasks and far visual acuity in healthy, younger adults. b) We evaluated the interaction of cognitive aging and declining motor sequence learning in older adults. In a between-subjects design we tested 11 younger adults (Mage = 23.6 years) without the age suit, 12 younger adults wearing the age suit (Mage = 23.2 years), and 23 older adults (Mage = 72.6 years). All participants learned a simple, spatial-temporal movement sequence on two consecutive days, and we assessed perceptual processing speed (Digit Symbol Substitution test and Figural Speed test) and far visual acuity. Wearing an age simulation suit neither affected the learning of the simple motor sequence nor the performance at the cognitive speed tasks in younger adults. However, far visual acuity suffered from wearing the suit. Younger adults with and without the suit showed better motor sequence learning compared to older adults. The significant correlations between the cognitive speed tests and the motor learning performance in older adults indicated that cognitive aging partially explains some of the variance in age-related motor learning deficits.

Prognostic Value of Genomic Clusters Using Machine Learning in Older Adults with AML

Background: Older adults with AML have a decline in performance statues and acquired comorbidities compared to younger patients. Treatment intensity and outcomes were varied according to those factors. Various studies tried to classify genetic landscapes to predict outcomes in AML patients. However, those were mostly for younger patients treated with intensive chemotherapy. Machine learning (ML) is useful for classifying large data by calculating each data and subtracting characteristics. Given the limited data of genomic classification for older adults with AML, we analyzed genetic landscapes using ML in the context of treatment intensity. Methods: Unsupervised hierarchical clustering method was used to determine the most likely set of clusters according to cytogenetic/mutation properties at AML diagnosis. Patient selection criterion for this analysis were set as follows; (a) elderly (60 years or older) AML patients who were diagnosed in Seoul St. Mary's Hospital between Jul 2017 and Oct 2021, (b) having available information on chromosome and gene mutation at diagnosis and (c) treated with either intensive chemotherapy (IC), hypomethylating agents (HMA), or HMA plus Venetoclax (HMA/VEN). Patients who received best supportive care only were not included in this study. Results: A total of 279 patients who met inclusion criteria were selected and their median age at diagnosis was 68 years (range 60-). As first-line treatment, 131 patients received IC (47.0%), 76 patients received HMA only (27.2%), and 72 patients were treated with HMA/VEN (25.8%). After a median follow up of 22.5 months, the median overall survival (OS) in the three groups were 22.7, 8.8, and 12.0 months, respectively (p<0.001). We applied the ELN2022 risk stratification to these 3 different treatment groups. For IC group, there was no survival difference between favorable, intermediate, and adverse groups (44 months, 23.1 months, 14.9 months p=0.255). In addition, HMA groups (p-value =0.903) and HMA/VEN group (p-value = 0.805) did not showed survival differences according to risk groups by ELN2022. Next, we conducted hierarchical clustering analysis in a total cohort, which was found to be best classified into 8 clusters by indices for determining the number of clusters. The dominant cytogenetic features of each cluster are demonstrated as follows. The cluster 1(C1) was a group that IDH1 and TP53 mutations were mostly proportioned; C2 was RNA splicing gene dominant (U2AF1 or SRFS2 mutations); C3 was ASXL1 and complex karyotype dominant; C4 was DNA methylation dominant (DNMT3A or TET2 mutations); C5 was NPM1 dominant; C6 was FLT3 mutations dominant; C7 was RUNX1-RUNX1T1 or CBFB-MYH11 fusion dominant; and C8 was abnormal karyotype [-5 or del(5q); -7;-17/abn(17p)] dominant. Thereafter, we linked these genomic clusters with survival outcomes of each treatment arm. Among the 131 patients in the IC group, C5 and C7 were identified as favorable groups while C2 and C8 were classified as adverse groups. On the other hand, in the HMA group, C3 and C5 were allocated to favorable groups and C7 and C8 as adverse. In the HMA/VEN group, C2 and C6 showed favorable survival outcomes while C1 and C7 showed poorer outcomes. Interestingly, we found that an allocation of each genomic cluster to three distinguished (favorable, intermediate, adverse) prognostic groups was changed by the treatment types and survival outcomes of each cluster was substantially different according to different treatment arms. The groups of C1, C5, and C7 which included the HMA/VEN adverse group showed no differences in OS between HMA and HMA/VEN groups, while IC showed better outcomes (HMA vs. HMA/VEN vs. IC, 9.6 vs 9.2 vs 40.5 months, p<0.001). Among the groups of C2, C4, C6, and C8, the patients showed similar median OS between intensive chemotherapy and HMA/VEN, but both treatments showed better outcomes than HMA only (HMA vs HMA/VEN vs IC, 5.5 vs 17.2 vs 17.4 months, p<0.001). In addition, groups C2 and C4 had better median survival by DAC/VEN therapy than other kinds of treatment. (HMA vs HMA/VEN vs IC, 8.2 vs 17.5 vs Not reached, p=0.039). Conclusion: This study suggests that genomic clustering by unsupervised ML could identify genomic groups by co-occurrence patterns having different survival outcomes according to each treatment modality, thus potentially guiding treatment selection in older adults with AML. Figure 1View largeDownload PPTFigure 1View largeDownload PPT Close modal

Long term potentiation-like neural plasticity and performance-based memory function

ObjectiveExperience-dependent modulation of the visual evoked potential (VEP) has emerged as a promising non-invasive proxy for assaying long term potentiation (LTP)-like plasticity in the cerebral cortex. LTP is considered the principal candidate mechanism underlying learning and memory. There is, however, a paucity of evidence exploring associations between LTP-like plasticity and performance-based learning and memory. The present study aimed to explore the relationship between VEP-plasticity and higher-order learning and memory in healthy adults. MethodVisual and verbal learning and memory was assessed using the Aggie Figures Learning Test (AFLT) and the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). The study included 111 healthy adults (61.1% females; mean age 37.6 years, range 17–71) who underwent a VEP paradigm employing visual high-frequency stimulation to induce a change in visual evoked responses recorded by scalp EEG. In addition, a more comprehensive neuropsychological assessment was administered. ResultsSeveral significant moderate age-corrected positive correlations were found between modulation of the later VEP components (N1 and P1-N1 peak-to-peak) and both visual and verbal learning and memory performance. Further, there were significant differences in learning and memory performance between participants showing a higher degree of modulation (>1 SD above mean) compared to participants showing a lower degree of modulation. No significant associations were found between VEP-plasticity and other neurocognitive domains. ConclusionsThe current results suggest that LTP-like plasticity indexed by VEP modulation reflect processes specific to learning and memory. Future research is needed to further delineate the complex relationship between neural plasticity and learning and memory, specifically concerning possible clinical implications in populations with deficits in learning and memory function.