The Brain's Response to Learning

Amber Badgerow

October 19, 2011

PSY 213

John Olmsted

The Brain’s Response to Learning

Question:

The brain’s capacity to learn is a fascinating feature. There is obviously a method the brain must use in order to process and store information. What changes occur in the brain with learning?

Prediction:

In order to process and store information gained in learning, the brain may strengthen connections between neurons and may grow in the area needed for the particular task.

Article 1: “Neuroplasticity of semantic representations for musical instruments in professional musicians”

Klaus Hoenig, Cornelia Müller, Bärbel Herrnberger, Eun-Jin Sim, Manfred Spitzer, Günter Ehret, and Markus Kiefer from the University of Ulm in Germany conducted a study to investigate the effects of musical learning on the brain's abstract higher-level cognition. Previous studies have proven that the brain undergoes basic noncognitive and motor map changes due to musical experience. Hoenig et al. used fMRI scans to find neuroplastic changes induced by visual depictions of musical instruments while participants (20 professional musicians and 20 control subjects) performed two different tasks. One task was picture and word matching (a conceptual task) and the other was listening to sounds (a perceptual task). Activation of the posterior superior temporal gyrus, right middle temporal gyrus, and superior temporal sulcus in the abstract processing of musical instruments was produced only by professional musicians. Moreover, the right middle temporal gyrus was also activated when the musicians listened to sounds, which indicated a link between auditory perceptual and conceptual brain systems in musicians. Non-musicians were not able to incorporate the auditory association cortex when accessing abstract knowledge about musical instruments. Professional musicians also evidenced more activation outside auditory areas (including the parietal and inferior temporal areas, the bilateral angular gyrus, the superior frontal gyrus, and the precuneus) for musical instruments. All those areas had previously been associated with processing certain aspects of music. These results suggested that musicians' brains undergo experience-based neuroplasticity that forms higher-level auditory conceptual feature maps for musical instruments depicted in and next to the auditory association cortex. Learning a skill can cause the brain to form new connections.

Article 2: “Distinct patterns of functional and structural neuroplasticity associated with learning Morse code”

This article, written by T. Schmidt-Wilcke, K. Rosengarth, R. Luerding, U. Bogdahn, and M.W. Greenlee, discussed a study to further elucidate the association between learning and alterations in neural activity and gray matter density. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and voxel-based morphology (VBM) was used to observe such changes. Sixteen participants were studied, before and after they learned Morse code, against 15 control subjects. The study revealed that learning was associated with brain activity in the supramarginal gyrus, the superior temporal gyrus, the precuneus/posterior cingulate gyrus, the middle temporal gyrus, the right fusiform gyrus, the left angular gyrus, the left middle frontal gyrus, and the medial frontal gyrus/superior frontal gyrus. Furthermore, learners showed a significant increase in gray matter density in the left occipitotemporal cortex extending to the fusiform gyrus when comparing scans before and after learning. These areas are all associated with different aspects of language perception. The data from this study indicates that learning a new skill produces functional reorganization and regional structural changes in the brain.

Source Validity:

Both sources provided evidence from previous research that was similar to or contributed to their research to help ensure that results were not contingent. The authors of both articles were well credited. However, like many studies, they both had small sample groups, which can affect the reliability of their findings. Article two noted that the methods used were not able to allow for the analysis of functional connectivity between activated brain regions.

Reflection on Hypothesis:

The research found supports my hypothesis and even adds that neural connections are not only strengthened, but new ones formed. More information could be studied to further clarify the effects of learning on brain morphology and neural connections. One aspect not found in this research is whether or not white matter density is affected.

Works Cited:

Hoenig Klaus, Cornelia Müller, et al. “Neuroplasticity of semantic representations for musical

instruments in professional musicians.” NeuroImage 56.3 (2011): 1714-1725. Elsevier Inc.

ScienceDirect. Web. Oct. 18, 2011.

< http://0-www.sciencedirect.com.library.pcc.edu/science/article/pii/S1053811911002217>

Schmidt-Wilcke T., Rosengarth K. et al. “Distinct patterns of functional and structural

neuroplasticity associated with learning Morse code.” NeuroImage 51.3 (2010): 1234-1241.

Elsevier Inc. ScienceDirect. Web. Oct. 18, 2011.

< http://0-www.sciencedirect.com.library.pcc.edu/science/article/pii/S1053811910003290>