Laboratoire Neurobiologie et Vie Quotidienne, EPHE, PSL Research University, Bordeaux, France.
UMR 5287, Institut de Neurosciences Intégratives et Cognitives d'Aquitaine, Neuroimagerie et Cognition Humaine, CNRS, Université de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France.
J Neurosci Res. 2020 Apr;98(4):668-679. doi: 10.1002/jnr.24555. Epub 2019 Nov 24.
Learning involves distributed but coordinated activity among the widespread connected brain areas. Increase in areas connections' strength may be established offline, that is, aside from the task itself, in a resting-state. The resulting functional connectivity may hence constitute a neural trace of the learning episode. The present study examined whether a conditional visuomotor learning task previously shown to activate the cerebellum would modify cerebellar intrinsic connectivity in groups of young and older male subjects. In the group of young subjects, resting-state connectivity within several cerebellar networks (fronto-cerebellar, temporo-cerebellar, cerebello-cerebellar) was modified following the task. In most cases, modulation resulted in increased anticorrelations between cerebellar and cortical areas and the amplitude of changes was correlated with learning efficacy. The group of older subjects drastically differed, with sparser modifications of resting-state functional connectivity and no cerebellar networks involved. The findings of this exploratory study indicate that associative learning modifies the strength of intrinsic connectivity in young subjects but to a lesser degree in older subjects. They further suggest that functional connectivity within cerebellar networks may play an operative role in this kind of learning.
学习涉及广泛连接的大脑区域之间分布但协调的活动。区域连接强度的增加可能在离线状态下建立，即在任务本身之外的静息状态下建立。由此产生的功能连接可以构成学习事件的神经痕迹。本研究考察了先前显示激活小脑的条件视觉运动学习任务是否会改变年轻和年长男性受试者群体中小脑的固有连接。在年轻受试者组中，小脑内几个网络（额桥小脑、颞桥小脑、小脑小脑）的静息状态连接在任务后发生了变化。在大多数情况下，调制导致小脑和皮质区域之间的反相关增加，并且变化的幅度与学习效果相关。年长受试者组则大不相同，静息状态功能连接的变化较少，并且没有涉及小脑网络。这项探索性研究的结果表明，联想学习改变了年轻受试者固有连接的强度，但在年长受试者中则较小。它们进一步表明，小脑网络内的功能连接可能在这种学习中发挥作用。
