An electrophysiological correlate of learning in motion perception.

We investigated learning in a motion-detection task using both psychophysical and neurophysiological methods in normal humans. A total of 20 naive observers had to discriminate between a small motion to the left versus to the right (jump displacement) or between a motion upward versus downward. Their performance improved significantly within less than 30 min in discriminating between directions in the psychophysical jump-displacement task. The improvement of performance with practice was very specific and did not transfer to the same stimulus rotated by 90 degrees. After training for the same task, multichannel evoked-potential recordings changed significantly in component latency and in the distribution of field potentials. This indicates that neuronal ensembles rather than single cells are involved in perceptual learning. Significant differences between the potential distributions occur for potentials at latencies of less than 100 ms over the occipital pole, suggesting an involvement of and plasticity in the primary visual cortex of human adults.