Summary: Using real-time neurofeedback from imaging imaging, researchers have developed a ground-breaking method to “write” innovative learning patterns straight into the brain. Without receiving any explicit instruction, participants in the study were able to learn new physical object categories because their brains were delicately shaped to conform to predetermined patterns.
This method demonstrates that neural responses can be immediately shaped, opening the door to novel approaches to treating neurological and developmental disorders. The studies provide unmatched insight into how the brain processes information and the building blocks of understanding.
Important Facts:
- Neurological Sculpting: Researchers used real-time hypnosis to directly affect mind activity, creating new physical learning patterns.
- Implicit Learning: Members learned fresh categories without conscious recognition, highlighting the power of tacit neurological training.
- Clinical Potential: Reshaping mental patterns could be used to create novel treatments for conditions like autism and melancholy.
Origin: University of Rochester
Imagine being able to create a fresh pattern of activity in a child’s brain that would facilitate better care of medical and developmental problems like dementia or depression. Then imagine being able to accomplish that without having to have any real adjustment or brain surgery. Sounds like science literature?
It still is. But that’s simply what , Coraline Iordan, an assistant teacher of , mind and mental sciences , and of , neuroscience , at the , University of Rochester , has been working toward, showing for the first time that it can definitely be done for learning fresh physical categories of objects.
Usually, learning happens when our mental changes through knowledge, research, or instruction. However, Iordan and acquaintances at Yale and Princeton effectively tested a novel method for teaching the human mind to discover through physical manipulation and neurological feedback, or “sculpting” mental exercise habits.
The , research , appears in the , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Lead author Iordan says that our technique allows us to push complicated patterns in the mind toward well-known ones as well as, for the first time, write straight into the mind a new design and examine how it affects behavior.
Mental sculpting—a novel approach to learning?
The researchers modified how the mind interprets and processes information about physical objects using real-time fmri and second-by-second neurofeedback. Study participants viewed objects projected onto a mirror above their heads, which appeared to be a small screen, while operating a functional magnetic resonance imaging ( fMRI ) machine.
The participants ‘ picture was gently pulsing the intangible form that some participants described as a leaf, plant bulb, or butterfly until they were able to “move it” by their own thought processes to the pattern of brain activity that the researchers had previously monitored using brain in real time.
The researchers had not taught the study participants how to obtain such mental state but had instructed the individuals to “generate a psychological state” that would lessen the shape’s vibration.
” One of the impressive features of the study is that the neural messages and corresponding behavior to the new groups occurred without explicit awareness of those types, showing that a long tradition of work in psychology on implicit , processing—that is, the ability to respond to information effectively outside of awareness—also extends to the understanding and formation of new neural depictions”, says coauthor , Jonathan Cohen, a cognitive neuroscientist at Princeton University.
The study participants ‘ immediate response, in contrast to how the object would have been naturally represented in their brains, resulted in the image no longer whizzing on their mirror.
In other words, the scientists had created a technique that enabled people to learn new visual object categories by altering how their brains worked when they examined each of those categories.
We wrote a new category into your brain that would have appeared in your brain had you learned it yourself, according to Iordan.” Instead of teaching you something and measuring how your brain changes, we wrote a new category into your brain that would have appeared in your brain,” she says.
Then we examined whether you saw the new category we had added. Turns out you did”.
Study participants received financial rewards if they were able to stop the image deterioration, which could amount to a sizable bonus over the course of six daily sessions to ensure high motivation for success.
Future applications
Scientists are working to better understand what exactly happens to brain function in people with a variety of neuropsychiatric, developmental, or psychological disorders, such as major depression, visual agnosias ( the inability to recognize everyday items ), and autism.
A technique like theirs, in the opinion of Iordan, could eventually affect clinical treatment by altering the brain patterns of patients so that theirs appear more similar to those in the neurotypical population, which could in turn lead to novel treatment options, either on its own or in conjunction with already-existing therapies.
One of the most powerful demonstrations of brain training using real-time fMRI to date is this study. Dr. Iordan used neurofeedback to help humans create a category in their mind that then influenced their behavior”, says coauthor , Nicholas Turk-Browne, a psychologist at Yale University.
” In the future, this discovery could inform the development of , brain-computer interfaces , and clinical interventions”.
The scientists ‘ ability to access the brain in a way that hasn’t been done before is at its core.
We essentially turned learning on its head and taught your brain something that caused you to gain information vicariously, even though you were never given it explicitly,” says Iordan.
That indicates that we now have access to the brain’s foundation for learning things that are much more complex, such as entire categories of items, challenging visual items, or even potential far beyond that one day.
Funding: The study was supported by funding from the , John Templeton Foundation,  , Intel Corporation, and the , National Institutes of Health.
About this news about neuroscience research and learning.
Author: Sandra Knispel
Source: University of Rochester
Contact: Sandra Knispel – University of Rochester
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
Coraline Iordan and colleagues ‘” incorporating new visual categories into the human brain.” PNAS
Abstract
incorporating new visual categories into the human brain
Learning requires having a new brain. This typically occurs through experience, study, or instruction. We present an alternative method for human beings to acquire visual knowledge through the direct shaping of brain activity patterns that resemble those that are expected to develop through learning.
We created new categories of visual objects in the brain using neurofeedback from closed-loop real-time functional MRI without the participants ‘ conscious awareness. After neural sculpting, participants exhibited behavioral and neural biases for the learned, but not for the control categories.
A non-invasive research paradigm for the causal analysis of the relationship between neural representations and behavior is provided by the ability to sculpt new perceptual distinctions into the human brain.
As such, beyond its current application to perception, our work potentially has broad relevance for advancing understanding in other domains of cognition such as decision-making, memory, and motor control.
