BOLD fMRI in MR research to map learning histories

描述（由申请人提供）：成功的发展和适应在一定程度上需要在如何应对、何时应对以及应对后可能产生的后果方面表现得当。发育障碍和智力迟钝的特征是对各种偶发事件相关的环境刺激作出适当反应的缺陷。其中最主要的是达到适当反应水平的学习要求。为了了解健康成人学习过程的神经基础，之前的PET和fMRI研究对强化物或惩罚物传递过程中的大脑区域进行了成像。相似的大脑区域在多大程度上参与了与不同偶发事件相关的刺激的区分尚不清楚，但对于理解参与学习的神经过程同样重要。本应用程序提供了使用BOLD功能磁共振成像（fMRI）进行初步调查的数据，以检查少数成人受试者的辨别学习历史和神经激活模式之间的关系。初步结果表明，与非强化偶然性刺激相比，与强化偶然性相关的刺激产生了广泛的激活模式。在进行研究之前，研究人员需要在足够数量的非智力迟钝受试者中重复他们的初步工作，以确定基于刺激的成像方法在区分条件作用史或识别映射这些历史的神经基质方面的有用性。

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.