The modulators of infant learning

学习是认知发展的脚手架。不同的学习类型，包括重复学习，很早就被发现存在，并成为更高认知的基础。尽管多年来对婴儿知觉学习进行了研究，但我们并不知道婴儿知觉学习能力的调节器和增强器以及它们通过什么机制发挥作用。*从环境中获得的感觉数据被大脑作为规则捕获。例如，我们知道婴儿在学习语言时是处理这些规则的专家。然而，目前尚不清楚这种能力是感官、自下而上加工的结果，还是自下而上和自上而下过程的共同作用。在过去的几年里，我的实验室通过揭示重复效应脑活动(高密度脑电)的特征，为我们对知觉学习机制的理解做出了贡献。我们的结果表明，重复抑制不是疲劳的结果，而是伴随着记忆痕迹形成的大脑信号复杂性增加的反映。重要的是，我们已经证明了额叶在成人重复效应脑反应中的贡献作用，这一调节途径在婴儿中仍有待研究。*在这项新的研究工作中，我们将评估如何调节婴儿的学习，以加强或阻碍高级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器。在这项研究计划中，我们将评估它们如何在婴儿出生的第一年调节大脑学习反应。在一系列实验中，我们将使用高密度脑电波测量生命第一年期间的期望、惊喜和学习信号。具体地说，我们将评估自下而上和自上而下的处理路径是否发展，学习大脑反应如何在压力下增强/影响，以及它们是否发生在睡眠中。*通过对婴儿学习机制的更多了解，我们最终将能够提出针对婴儿期的学习增强方法，这是一个关键的发展时期。

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.