The modulators of infant learning

学习是认知发展的支架。不同的学习类型，包括重复学习，已经被发现在很早的时候就出现了，并且是高级认知的基础。尽管对婴儿感知学习进行了多年的研究，但我们不知道婴儿感知学习能力的调节和增强因素以及它们通过何种机制起作用。******来自环境的感觉数据被大脑捕获为规律。例如，我们知道婴儿在学习语言时是处理这些规律的专家。然而，目前尚不清楚这种能力是感官的、自下而上的处理的结果，还是自下而上和自上而下过程的共同努力的结果。******在过去的几年里，我的实验室通过揭示重复效应大脑活动的特征（高密度脑电图），为我们对感知学习机制的理解做出了贡献。我们的研究结果表明，重复抑制不是疲劳的结果，而是大脑信号复杂性增加的反映，伴随着记忆痕迹的形成。重要的是，我们已经证明了额叶在成人重复效应大脑反应中的促进作用，这一调节途径仍有待于在婴儿中研究。******在这项新的研究努力中，我们将评估如何调节婴儿学习以增强或阻碍更高认知发展所需的知识获取。众所周知，压力、睡眠和暗示是成年人学习和记忆能力的调节因素。在这个研究项目中，我们将评估它们如何调节婴儿在生命的第一年大脑学习反应。在一系列的实验中，我们将使用高密度脑电图测量生命第一年的期望、惊喜和学习信号。具体而言，我们将评估自下而上和自上而下的处理途径是否发展，学习大脑反应如何受到压力的增强/影响，以及它们是否在睡眠中发生。******通过对婴儿学习机制的更深入了解，我们最终将能够提出针对婴儿这一关键发育时期的学习增强方法。

Learning is the scaffold of cognitive development. Different learning types, including repetitive learning, have been revealed to be present very early on and to be the base of higher cognition. Despite years of research on infant perceptual learning, we do not know the modulators and enhancers of infant perceptual learning capacities and through which mechanisms they operate. ******Sensory data derived from the environment are captured by the brain as regularities. We know infants are experts in processing these regularities as they learn language, for example. However, it is not clear whether this capacity is the result of sensorial, bottom-up processing, or a combined effort from bottom-up and top-down processes. ******Over the past years, my laboratory has contributed to our understanding of perceptual learning mechanisms by revealing the signature of repetition effect brain activity (high-density EEG). Our results suggest that repetition suppression is not the result of fatigue, but the reflection of a complexity increase in the brain signal which accompanies the formation of a memory trace. Importantly, we have demonstrated the contributive role of the frontal lobe in the adult repetition effect brain responses, a modulating pathway that remains to be investigated in infants. ******In this new research endeavor, we will assess how infant learning can be modulated to potentiate or hinder knowledge acquisition required for higher cognition development. Stress, sleep, and cueing are well-known modulators of learning and memory capacities in adults. In this research program, we will assess how they modulate infant brain learning responses throughout the first year of life. In a series of experiments, we will measure expectancies, surprise and learning signals throughout the first year of life using high-density EEG. Specifically, we will assess whether bottom-up and top-down processing pathways develop, how learning brain responses are potentiated/affected by stress, and if they occur during sleep. ******Through a greater understanding of infant learning mechanisms, we will eventually be able to propose learning enhancing methods specific to infancy, a crucial developmental time period.