PNAS papers show operation of region-specific learning rules in the human brain
23 May 2008
Links:
Two papers published in 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' formally demonstrate the operation of different learning rules in the striatum and hippocampus.
Using virtual reality and fMRI, Dr Christian Doeller, Dr John King and Prof Neil Burgess (Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience) showed that environmental locations are concurrently learned relative to both discrete landmarks and extended boundaries, but the landmark-related learning is mediated by the striatum via a reinforcement learning rule while the boundary-related learning is mediated by the hippocampus via an incidental learning rule.
The citations in full are:
- Doeller C, King JA, Burgess N (2008) Parallel and independent processing of environmental boundaries and landmarks in hippocampus and striatum. P.N.A.S. 105 5915-5920
- Doeller C, Burgess N (2008) Distinct error-correcting and incidental learning of location relative to landmarks and boundaries. P.N.A.S. 105 5909-5914
To find out more, follow the links at the top of this item.