How old knowledge begets new knowledge: strategic regulation of neocortical knowledge modules and learning-induced neocortical plasticity

认知心理学和教育心理学长期以来一直认为先验知识对新知识的编码和提取具有影响作用，特别关注概念知识和图式的作用。直到最近，图式才在动物和人类神经生物学文献中引起人们的兴趣，而更多的是关于类别的认知神经科学。在目前的研究计划中，我将建立在最近的和令人兴奋的发现图式在记忆领域的神经生物学。重要的是，我们的研究计划旨在阐明术语图式的使用，并描绘其与其他相关术语的关系-最值得注意的是概念，但也包括脚本，要点，提取的概率等。在这些研究中，我们依赖于神经损伤（虚构和健忘症）患者的数据和神经成像（功能磁共振成像，脑磁图和ERP）。神经解剖学上，我们提出，相同的原则，代表性的枢纽，将孤立的神经模块结合在一起，多模态合奏操作的概念知识，与前颞叶（ATL）的枢纽，和图式，与腹内侧前额叶皮层（vmPFC）作为枢纽。前图式对新信息编码的促进作用可以通过大脑前额叶皮层与后皮层的相互作用来介导。VMPFC通过“图式实例化”来支持图式相关的记忆功能：偏向并积极维护在线上下文相关的图式，这些图式充当信息同化的支架。使用ERP的和MEG，我们将测试皮质-皮质之间的相互作用，当患者和对照组执行图式实例化任务时，VMPFC和外侧后新皮质结构。我们预计健康对照组的成功表现将主要取决于θ范围内的频率相干性，而这些在患者中将缺失。我们将把这些信号与来自类似概念知识任务（即哺乳动物或节肢动物等类别）的信号进行比较。我们希望发现，而不是vmPFC，ATL将发挥协调作用的后部新皮层活动。我们也将继续研究概念知识如何支持直接的新皮层学习。我们以前已经证明，ATL是学习新的标签图片协会的关键，独立于海马体。其他人跟随我们的领导，证实了我们的预测，即这种学习取决于在编码新联想过程中相关语义的激活;这可能会导致新皮层网络的激活，而这种网络活动使其能够修改和整合新信息。使用MEG和我们开发的贝叶斯模型，我们计划调查新皮层活动促进新皮层水平概念学习的方式，以及这种学习的边界 **

Cognitive and educational psychology have long identified the influential role of prior knowledge on encoding and retrieval of new knowledge, with particular focus on the roles of conceptual knowledge and schemas. Schemas have only recently generated interest in both the animal and human neurobiological literature, whereas more is known about the cognitive neuroscience of categories. In the present research program I will build on recent and exciting findings on the neurobiology of schemas in the memory domain. Importantly our research program is geared towards elucidating the use of the term schema and delineating its relationship to other related terms- most notably concepts, but also scripts, gist, extracted probabilities and so forth. In these studies we rely on data from patients with neurological damage (confabulation and amnesia), and neuroimaging (fMRI, MEG and ERP's). Neuroanatomically, we propose that the same principle of representational hubs that bind together isolated neural modules into multi-modal ensembles operate for conceptual knowledge, with the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) as the hub, and for schemas, with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) as hub. Facilitation of encoding of new information by prior schemas can be mediated by hippocampal-vmPFC interaction with posterior neocortex. The vmPFC supports schema-related memory functions by “schema instantiation”: biasing and actively maintaining online contextually relevant schemas that serve as scaffold for information assimilation. Using ERP's and MEG we will test cortico-cortical interactions between vmPFC and lateral posterior neocortical structures when patients and controls perform schema instantiation tasks. We expect that healthy controls' successful performance would depend on frequency coherence primarily in the theta range and that these will be missing in patients. We will compare these signals to the ones derived from analogous conceptual knowledge tasks (i.e. categories such as mammals or arthropods). We expect to find that rather than vmPFC, the ATL would play a coordinating role for posterior neocortical activity. We will also continue our investigations of how conceptual knowledge may support direct neocortical learning. We have previously demonstrated that the ATL is key for learning novel label-picture associations, independently of the hippocampus. Others who followed our lead, confirming our prediction that this learning depends on activation of related semantics during encoding of the novel associations; this presumably leads to activation of neocortical networks and this network activity enables its modification and integration of novel information. Using MEG and a Bayesian model which we developed we plan to investigate the manner in which neocortical activity facilitates conceptual learning at the neocortical level, as well as the boundaries of such learning**