By: Akshay Karthik
For the first time, scientists at Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging (CCBI) have used a new combination of neuroimaging methods to discover exactly how the human brain adapts to injury. The research, published in Cerebral Cortex, shows that when one brain area loses functionality, a “backup” team of secondary brain areas immediately activates, replacing the unavailable site and its confederates. “The human brain has a remarkable ability to adapt to various types of trauma, such as traumatic brain injury and stroke, making it possible for people to continue functioning after key brain areas have been damaged,” said Marcel Just, the D. O. Hebb Professor of Psychology at CMU and CCBI director.
The research team used the fMRI scans to measure how the brain activity changed immediately following stimulation to the Wernicke area. The results showed that as the brain function in the Wernicke area decreased following the application of TMS, a “backup” team of secondary brain areas immediately became activated and coordinated, allowing the individual’s thought process to continue with no decrease in comprehension performance. The brain’s backup team consisted of three types of brain regions: (1) contralateral areas —areas that are in the mirror-image location of the brain; (2) areas that are right next to the impaired area; and (3) a frontal executive area. This research builds on Just’s previous research on brain resilience after stroke and brain training to remediate dyslexia. The studies are motivated by a computational theory called 4CAPS, which provides an account of how autonomous brain systems dynamically self-organize themselves in response to changing circumstances, which the researchers believe to be the basis of fluid intelligence. Just, who uses brain imaging to understand how brain processes underpin various types of human thought, has helped to establish Carnegie Mellon as a world leader in brain sciences. The university recently launched a Brain, Mind, and Learning initiative to build from its research excellence in psychology, computer science, and computation to continue to solve real-world problems.
People with learning differences have deficiencies in their brains, compared to others, while also boosting other parts of their brains. Like an injury, the brain needs to learn how to adapt to the struggles that the individual faces in their day-to-day life. Things like activities or meetings help facilitate these adaptations so the process of being on par with your other fellow students is short and concise, yet you remain to keep your individualistic qualities. A study was conducted at Carnegie Mellon University, where scientists discovered a crucial way that learning occurs in the brain of adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Using functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) imaging, Schipul and Just found that the brain activation of ASD individuals was slower to become familiar with the pattern they repeatedly saw — meaning their brains failed to register the “oldness” of the patterns to the same degree that the control participants did. The brains of the control participants kept decreasing their level of activation with repeated exposures to the patterns being learned — showing adaptation — whereas the decreases in the brain of participants with ASD were significantly smaller. They also found that the severity of an individual’s autism symptoms correlated with the brain’s degree of adaptation to the patterns. The findings provide insight into why many real-world implicit learning situations, such as learning to interpret facial expressions, pose challenges for those with ASD.“This finding provides a tentative explanation for why people with ASD might have difficulty with everyday social interactions if their learning of implicit social cues has been altered,” said Just, the D.O. Hebb University Professor of Psychology in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. While having their brains scanned, 16 high-functioning adults with ASD and 16 typical adults were trained to perform an implicit dot pattern-learning task. The target pattern was a random array of dots, which can gradually become familiar over multiple exposures despite minor changes in the pattern. Before the brain scan, both groups were familiarized with the type of task that would be used in the scanner. The ASD participants took longer than the control group to learn the task, demonstrating altered implicit learning in ASD. After equalizing the task structure learning and using the fMRI scanner, the two groups’ brain activation differed while learning a new dot pattern. The imaging showed that both groups’ brain activation levels were similar at the beginning of the learning session. By the end of the task, the typical participants showed decreased activation in the posterior regions. The ASD participants’ brain activation did not reduce later in learning. It increased in the frontal and parietal areas.
Bibliography
University, C. M. (n.d.-a). Brains with autism adapt differently during implicit learning - news - carnegie Mellon University. Brains With Autism Adapt Differently During Implicit Learning - News - Carnegie Mellon University. https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2015/november/autism-and-learning.html
University, C. M. (n.d.-b). Department of Psychology. Department of Psychology - Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences - Carnegie Mellon University. https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/psychology/
University, C. M. (n.d.-c). Press release: New Carnegie Mellon Research reveals exactly how the human brain adapts to injury - news - carnegie Mellon University. Press Release: New Carnegie Mellon Research Reveals Exactly How the Human Brain Adapts to Injury - News - Carnegie Mellon University. https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2013/january/jan16_brainadaptstoinjury.html#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20human%20brain%20has%20a,at%20CMU%20and%20CCBI%20director.
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