Neural Mechanisms Underlying Functional Plasticity of the Human Brain

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Learning and skill acquisition rely to a large extent on implicit processes that occur independent of conscious awareness, both on short and long timescales. An example on a short timescale is repetition priming (RP) – improved performance in identifying, producing, or classifying a stimulus upon repetition of the same or a related stimulus. Neuroimaging reveals that RP is often accompanied by repetition suppression (RS) – reduced neural activation in parts of the brain that are critical for the task at hand. Despite 20 years of research, the link between RP and RS remains elusive. Many theories have focused on changes in local activity within discrete brain regions. However, an alternative explanation is that RS might be a consequence of more efficient communication across large-scale cortical networks. By this account, repetition leads to more efficient coupling across brain regions (functional connectivity: FC), which simultaneously reduces local neural activity and enhances cognitive performance. However, there is little direct evidence to support this hypothesis to date. Thus, there is a