TY - JOUR
T1 - Spontaneous brain activity predicts learning ability of foreign sounds
AU - Ventura-Campos, Noelia
AU - Sanjuán, Ana
AU - González, Julio
AU - Palomar-García, María Ángeles
AU - Rodríguez-Pujadas, Aina
AU - Sebastián-Gallés, Núria
AU - Deco, Gustavo
AU - Ávila, César
PY - 2013/5/29
Y1 - 2013/5/29
N2 - Can learning capacity of the human brain be predicted from initial spontaneous functional connectivity (FC) between brain areas involved in a task?Wecombined task-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) before and after training with a Hindi dental-retroflex nonnative contrast. Previous fMRI results were replicated, demonstrating that this learning recruited the left insula/frontal operculum and the left superior parietal lobe, among other areas of the brain. Crucially, resting-state FC (rs-FC) between these two areas at pretraining predicted individual differences in learning outcomes after distributed (Experiment 1) and intensive training (Experiment 2). Furthermore, this rs-FC was reduced at posttraining, a change that may also account for learning. Finally, resting-state network analyses showed that the mechanism underlying this reduction of rs-FC was mainly a transfer in intrinsic activity of the left frontal operculum/anterior insula from the left frontoparietal network to the salience network. Thus, rs-FC may contribute to predict learning ability and to understand how learning modifies the functioning of the brain. The discovery of this correspondence between initial spontaneous brain activity in task-related areas and posttraining performance opens new avenues to find predictors of learning capacities in the brain using task-related fMRI and rs-fMRI combined.
AB - Can learning capacity of the human brain be predicted from initial spontaneous functional connectivity (FC) between brain areas involved in a task?Wecombined task-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) before and after training with a Hindi dental-retroflex nonnative contrast. Previous fMRI results were replicated, demonstrating that this learning recruited the left insula/frontal operculum and the left superior parietal lobe, among other areas of the brain. Crucially, resting-state FC (rs-FC) between these two areas at pretraining predicted individual differences in learning outcomes after distributed (Experiment 1) and intensive training (Experiment 2). Furthermore, this rs-FC was reduced at posttraining, a change that may also account for learning. Finally, resting-state network analyses showed that the mechanism underlying this reduction of rs-FC was mainly a transfer in intrinsic activity of the left frontal operculum/anterior insula from the left frontoparietal network to the salience network. Thus, rs-FC may contribute to predict learning ability and to understand how learning modifies the functioning of the brain. The discovery of this correspondence between initial spontaneous brain activity in task-related areas and posttraining performance opens new avenues to find predictors of learning capacities in the brain using task-related fMRI and rs-fMRI combined.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84878311071&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4655-12.2013
DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4655-12.2013
M3 - Article
C2 - 23719798
AN - SCOPUS:84878311071
SN - 0270-6474
VL - 33
SP - 9295
EP - 9305
JO - The Journal of Neuroscience
JF - The Journal of Neuroscience
IS - 22
ER -