Stimulating Multiple-Demand Cortex Enhances Vocabulary Learning
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Accepted version
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
It is well established that domain general networks (DGNs) in the human brain become active when diverse novel skills and behaviors are being learnt. However, their causal role in learning remains to be established. In the present study, we first performed functional magnetic resonance imaging on healthy participants to confirm that DGNs were most active in the initial stages of learning a novel vocabulary, consisting of pronounceable nonwords (pseudowords), each associated with a picture of a real object. We then examined, in healthy participants, whether repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of a frontal midline node of the cingulo-opercular DGN affected learning rates during the initial stages of learning. We report that stimulation of this node, but not a control brain region, substantially improved both accuracy and response times during the earliest stage of learning pseudowords-object associations. This stimulation had no effect on the processing of established vocabulary, tested by the accuracy and response times when participants decided whether a real word was accurately paired with a picture of an object. These results provide evidence that non-invasive stimulation to DGN nodes can enhance learning rates, thereby demonstrating their causal role in the learning process. We propose that this causal role makes DGNs candidate targets for experimental therapeutics; for example, in stroke patients with aphasia attempting to reacquire a vocabulary.
Date Issued
2017-08-09
Date Acceptance
2017-04-27
Citation
Journal of Neuroscience, 2017, 37 (32), pp.7606-7618
ISSN
1529-2401
Publisher
Society for Neuroscience
Start Page
7606
End Page
7618
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Neuroscience
Volume
37
Issue
32
Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2017 Sliwinska et al.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.
License URL
Sponsor
Wellcome Trust
Grant Number
103045/Z/13/Z
Subjects
11 Medical And Health Sciences
17 Psychology And Cognitive Sciences
Neurology & Neurosurgery
Publication Status
Published