Experience-dependent plasticity of conceptual representations in human sensory-motor areas.

Full Abstract

Concepts are composed of features related to different sensory and motor modalities such as vision, sound, and action. It is a matter of controversy whether conceptual features are represented in sensory-motor areas reflecting the specific learning experience during acquisition. In order to address this issue, we assessed the plasticity of conceptual representations by training human participants with novel objects under different training conditions. These objects were assigned to categories such that for one class of categories, the overall shape was diagnostic for category membership, whereas for the other class, a detail feature affording a particular action was diagnostic. During training, participants were asked to either make an action pantomime toward the detail feature of the novel object or point to it. In a categorization task at test, we assessed the neural correlates of the acquired conceptual representations by measuring electrical brain activity. Here, we show that the same object is differentially processed depending on the sensory-motor interactions during knowledge acquisition. Only in the pantomime group did we find early activation in frontal motor regions and later activation in occipito-parietal visual-motor regions. In the pointing training group, these effects were absent. These results show that action information contributes to conceptual processing depending on the specific learning experience. In line with modality-specific theories of conceptual memory, our study suggests that conceptual representations are established by the learning-based formation of cell assemblies in sensory-motor areas.

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Author information

Author/s: Kiefer, Markus (M); Sim, Eun-Jin (EJ); Liebich, Sarah (S); Hauk, Olaf (O); Tanaka, James (J);

Affiliation: University of Ulm, Germany. Markus.Kiefer(-atsign-)uni-ulm.de

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Journal of cognitive neuroscience (J Cogn Neurosci), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Mar; vol 19 (issue 3) : pp 525-42

Dates: Created 2007/03/05; Completed 2007/05/02;

PMID: 17335399, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Decision Making - physiology
Electroencephalography
Evoked Potentials - physiology
Feedback, Psychological - physiology
Female
Form Perception - physiology
Humans
Learning - physiology

Learning - physiology
Male
Motor Cortex - physiology
Neuronal Plasticity - physiology
Occipital Lobe - physiology
Parietal Lobe - physiology
Photic Stimulation
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Somatosensory Cortex - physiology

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