The cognitive neuroscience of infant learning

大脑发育受学习的调节，而学习又受大脑发育的调节。在接下来的五年研究计划中，我们将调查习惯化的关键网络及其成员的发展演变。习惯化是最原始的学习形式。在婴儿研究中，习惯化是通过优先注视范式来衡量的：在多个试验中，单一刺激呈现的时间相对较短，直到观察到显著的注视时间下降。在细胞水平上，习惯化导致神经反应的减少，这一现象被称为重复抑制(RS)，在头皮脑电中对应于诱导的伽马活动的减少。因此，高密度脑电将被用来调查1周至7个月大的婴儿。我们将首先确定婴儿中参与视觉习惯的神经系统，以及这些系统如何随着年龄的变化而变化。这将大大提高我们对发育过程中学习所需的大脑信号的理解，这将为人类基本的学习机制提供见解。重要的是，我们将研究注意系统对成熟视觉习惯化的影响。学习和注意力之间的关系得到了以前的研究的支持。然而，他们的网络的发展及其发展的相互依存关系尚不清楚。此外，这项研究计划的目的是在我们对婴儿如何获得和建立知识的理解方面取得重大进展。因此，我们将解决先前暴露对视觉习惯化的影响。这项研究将有助于我们理解语义知识的发展，语义知识在一生中是非常健壮的，并将有助于我们理解先前知识和新习得之间的相互作用。

Brain development is modulated by learning and learning is modulated in turn by brain development. In the next five years of the research program, we will investigate the critical networks for habituation and the developmental evolution of their constituents. Habituation is the most primitive form of learning. In infant studies, habituation is measured by preferential looking paradigms: a single stimulus is presented for relatively brief periods across multiple trials until a significant looking time decline is observed. At the cellular level, habituation induces a decrease in neural response, a phenomenon known as repetition suppression (RS), which corresponds in scalp EEG to a reduction in induced gamma activity. High density EEG will therefore be used to investigate infants aged from 1 week to 7 months. We will first identify the neural systems in infants that are engaged by visual habituation and how these systems change with age. This should significantly advance our understanding of the brain signals required for learning during development, which will provide insights into rudimentary learning mechanisms in humans. Importantly, we will investigate the impact of the attentional systems on visual habituation with maturation. The relation between learning and attention is supported by previous studies. However, the development of their networks and their developmental interdependencies are not known. In addition, this research program aims to make significant progress in our understanding of how infants acquire and build knowledge. Accordingly, we will address the effect of prior exposure on visual habituation. This research will contribute to our understanding of the development of semantic knowledge, which is very robust during the lifetime, and will help us understand the interplay between previous knowledge and new acquisition.