BOLD fMRI in MR research to map learning histories

描述（由申请人提供）：成功的发展和适应需要，部分，在如何响应，何时响应，以及响应后可能产生什么后果方面的适当表现。 发育障碍和智力迟钝的定义特征是对与各种突发事件相关的环境刺激做出适当反应的缺陷。 其中最主要的是达到适当反应水平的学习要求。 为了了解健康成年人学习过程的神经基础，以前的PET和fMRI研究在实施惩罚者或惩罚者的过程中对大脑区域进行成像。 相似的大脑区域在多大程度上参与区分与不同突发事件相关的刺激尚不清楚，但对于理解参与学习的神经过程同样重要。 本申请提供的数据从初步调查使用BOLD功能磁共振成像检查歧视学习和神经模式的激活在少数成年人受试者的历史之间的关系。 初步结果表明，与强化应急刺激产生了广泛的激活模式时，与不相关的应急刺激相比。 在进行研究比较受试者和没有不同程度的精神发育迟滞之前，研究人员需要复制他们的初步工作与足够数量的非精神发育迟滞受试者，以确定有用的刺激为基础的成像方法，无论是在不同的条件反射的历史或识别神经基板映射这些历史。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Successful development and adaptation requires, in part, proper performances in terms of how to respond, when to respond, and what consequences may follow responding. Defining characteristics of developmental disabilities and mental retardation are deficits in responding appropriately to environmental stimuli associated with various contingencies. Primary among these are the learning requirements to reach proper levels of responding. To understand the neural substrates underlying learning processes in healthy adults, previous PET and fMRI investigations image brain regions during delivery of reinforcers or punishers. The extent to which similar brain regions are involved in discriminating among stimuli associated with different contingencies is unclear, but equally important to understanding the neural processes involved in learning. This application presents data from a preliminary investigation using BOLD fMRI to examine relations between a history of discrimination learning and neural patterns of activation in a small number of adult human subjects. Preliminary results show stimuli associated with a reinforcement contingency produced a wide range of activation patterns when contrasted with a stimulus not associated with a contingency. Before conducting studies comparing subjects with and without differing levels of mental retardation, the investigators need to replicate their preliminary work with a sufficient number of non-mental retardation subjects to determine the usefulness of the stimulus-based imaging approach in either differing between conditioning histories or identifying neural substrates that map these histories.