Tinga Angelica M, Clim Maria-Alena, de Back Tycho T, Louwerse Max M
Department of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, Tilburg University, Dante Building, Room D 330, Warandelaan 2, 5037 AB, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
Exp Brain Res. 2021 Apr;239(4):1061-1072. doi: 10.1007/s00221-021-06039-2. Epub 2021 Feb 2.
Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a promising technique for non-invasively assessing cortical brain activity during learning. This technique is safe, portable, and, compared to other imaging techniques, relatively robust to head motion, ocular and muscular artifacts and environmental noise. Moreover, the spatial resolution of fNIRS is superior to electroencephalography (EEG), a more commonly applied technique for measuring brain activity non-invasively during learning. Outcomes from fNIRS measures during learning might therefore be both sensitive to learning and to feedback on learning, in a different way than EEG. However, few studies have examined fNIRS outcomes in learning and no study to date additionally examined the effects of feedback. To address this apparent gap in the literature, the current study examined prefrontal cortex activity measured through fNIRS during visuomotor learning and how this measure is affected by task feedback. Activity in the prefrontal cortex decreased over the course of learning while being unaffected by task feedback. The findings demonstrate that fNIRS in the prefrontal cortex is valuable for assessing visuomotor learning and that this measure is robust to task feedback. The current study highlights the potential of fNIRS in assessing learning even under different task feedback conditions.
功能近红外光谱技术（fNIRS）是一种很有前景的技术，可用于在学习过程中无创地评估大脑皮层活动。该技术安全、便携，并且与其他成像技术相比，对头部运动、眼部和肌肉伪影以及环境噪声具有相对较强的耐受性。此外，fNIRS的空间分辨率优于脑电图（EEG），后者是一种在学习过程中更常用于无创测量大脑活动的技术。因此，在学习过程中通过fNIRS测量得到的结果可能以与EEG不同的方式，对学习和学习反馈都很敏感。然而，很少有研究考察过fNIRS在学习中的结果，而且迄今为止没有研究额外考察过反馈的影响。为了填补文献中的这一明显空白，本研究考察了在视觉运动学习过程中通过fNIRS测量的前额叶皮层活动，以及该测量如何受到任务反馈的影响。前额叶皮层的活动在学习过程中减少，同时不受任务反馈的影响。研究结果表明，前额叶皮层的fNIRS对于评估视觉运动学习很有价值，并且该测量对任务反馈具有耐受性。本研究凸显了fNIRS即使在不同任务反馈条件下评估学习的潜力。
