Learning 'Greases' Connections Between Brain Regions
Monday, October 19, 2009 - 12:15
in Psychology & Sociology
Brain activity considered to be spontaneous 'white noise' changes after a person learns a new task, according to researchers, and the degree of change reflects how well subjects have learned to perform the task. The suggestion is that this learning-induced change in the brain's spontaneous activity may reflect a 'memory trace' for the new skill, which makes it easier to use those parts of the brain together again when the same challenge is presented. In addition to helping anatomical connections between different brain regions, the changes in spontaneous brain activity may maintain a record of prior experience that constrains the way the same circuitries are recruited at the time of a task. read more