Experiments conducted at Boston University (BU) and ATR Computational
Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan, recently demonstrated that
through a person's visual cortex, researchers could use decoded
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to induce brain activity
patterns to match a previously known target state and thereby improve
performance on visual tasks.
In the future, a person may be able to watch a computer screen and
have his or her brain patterns modified to improve physical or mental
performance. Researchers say an innovative learning method that uses
decoded functional magnetic resonance imaging could modify brain
activities to help people recuperate from an accident or disease, learn a
new language or even fly a plane.
Think of a person watching a computer screen and having his or her
brain patterns modified to match those of a high-performing athlete or
modified to recuperate from an accident or disease. Though preliminary,
researchers say such possibilities may exist in the future.
"Adult early visual areas are sufficiently plastic to cause visual
perceptual learning," said lead author and BU neuroscientist Takeo
Watanabe of the part of the brain analyzed in the study.
Neuroscientists have found that pictures gradually build up inside a
person's brain, appearing first as lines, edges, shapes, colors and
motion in early visual areas. The brain then fills in greater detail to
make a red ball appear as a red ball, for example.
Researchers studied the early visual areas for their ability to cause improvements in visual performance and learning.
"Some previous research confirmed a correlation between improving
visual performance and changes in early visual areas, while other
researchers found correlations in higher visual and decision areas,"
said Watanabe, director of BU's Visual Science Laboratory. "However,
none of these studies directly addressed the question of whether early
visual areas are sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual
learning." Until now.
Boston University post-doctoral fellow Kazuhisa Shibata designed and
implemented a method using decoded fMRI neurofeedback to induce a
particular activation pattern in targeted early visual areas that
corresponded to a pattern evoked by a specific visual feature in a brain
region of interest. The researchers then tested whether repetitions of
the activation pattern caused visual performance improvement on that
visual feature.
The result, say researchers, is a novel learning approach sufficient
to cause long-lasting improvement in tasks that require visual
performance.
What's more, the approached worked even when test subjects were not aware of what they were learning.
"The most surprising thing in this study is that mere inductions of
neural activation patterns corresponding to a specific visual feature
led to visual performance improvement on the visual feature, without
presenting the feature or subjects' awareness of what was to be
learned," said Watanabe, who developed the idea for the research project
along with Mitsuo Kawato, director of ATR lab and Yuka Sasaki, an
assistant in neuroscience at Massachusetts General Hospital.
"We found that subjects were not aware of what was to be learned
while behavioral data obtained before and after the neurofeedback
training showed that subjects' visual performance improved specifically
for the target orientation, which was used in the neurofeedback
training," he said.
The finding brings up an inevitable question. Is hypnosis or a type of automated learning a potential outcome of the research?
"In theory, hypnosis or a type of automated learning is a potential
outcome," said Kawato. "However, in this study we confirmed the validity
of our method only in visual perceptual learning. So we have to test if
the method works in other types of learning in the future. At the same
time, we have to be careful so that this method is not used in an
unethical way."
At present, the decoded neurofeedback method might be used for
various types of learning, including memory, motor and rehabilitation.
The National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health
and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
in Japan supported the research.
From sciencedaily
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