Akkoyunlu Beyza, Schwiedrzik Caspar M
Neural Circuits and Cognition Lab, European Neuroscience Institute Göttingen-A Joint Initiative of the University Medical Center Göttingen and the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Grisebachstraße 5, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
Perception and Plasticity Group, German Primate Center-Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Kellnerweg 4, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
J Cogn Enhanc. 2025;9(3):297-309. doi: 10.1007/s41465-025-00329-1. Epub 2025 May 24.
Performance on visual tasks can be improved by practice, a process called visual perceptual learning. However, learning-induced performance improvements are often limited to the specific stimuli and visual field locations used during training. Recent research has shown that variability along task-irrelevant stimulus dimensions during training can reduce this specificity. This has been related to higher stages of visual processing that harbor neurons that are invariant to the task-irrelevant dimension. Here, we test whether task-irrelevant trial-by-trial variability in two visual features for which invariances arise at different stages of processing, contrast, and spatial phase results in different degrees of generalization in space in an orientation discrimination task. We find that randomizing spatial phase results in complete generalization of learning to a new spatial location, contrary to randomizing contrast. Our results thus suggest that the neural population undergoing plasticity in visual perceptual learning is determined by the training task, which, in turn, affects generalization. This lends further support to the hypothesis that task-irrelevant variability is an independent factor in determining the specificity of perceptual learning.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41465-025-00329-1.
通过练习可以提高视觉任务的表现，这一过程称为视觉感知学习。然而，学习引起的表现提升通常局限于训练期间使用的特定刺激和视野位置。最近的研究表明，训练期间与任务无关的刺激维度的变异性可以减少这种特异性。这与视觉处理的更高阶段有关，这些阶段包含对与任务无关的维度不变的神经元。在这里，我们测试在一个方向辨别任务中，在处理的不同阶段出现不变性的两个视觉特征（对比度和空间相位）中，逐次试验的与任务无关的变异性是否会导致在空间上不同程度的泛化。我们发现，与随机化对比度相反，随机化空间相位会导致学习完全泛化到一个新的空间位置。因此，我们的结果表明，在视觉感知学习中经历可塑性的神经群体由训练任务决定，而训练任务又会影响泛化。这进一步支持了这样一种假设，即与任务无关的变异性是决定感知学习特异性的一个独立因素。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s41465-025-00329-1获取的补充材料。
