Ca. Seger et al., Hemispheric asymmetries and individual differences in visual concept learning as measured by functional MRI, NEUROPSYCHO, 38(9), 2000, pp. 1316-1324
Dynamic changes in brain regions active while learning novel visual concept
s were examined in humans using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Part
icipants learned to distinguish between exemplars of two categories, formed
as distortions of different unseen prototype stimuli. Regions of the right
hemisphere (dorsolateral prefrontal and inferior parietal areas) were acti
ve early in learning and throughout task performance, whereas homologous po
rtions of the left hemisphere were active only in later stages of learning.
Left dorsolateral prefrontal activation was found only in participants who
showed superior conceptual learning. Such a progression from initial right
-hemisphere processing of specific instances to bilateral activity as left-
hemisphere conceptual processes are recruited may underlie the development
of many forms of visual knowledge. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All right
s reserved.