Multisensory guided associative learning in healthy humans

PLoS One. 2019 Mar 12;14(3):e0213094. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213094. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Associative learning is a basic cognitive function by which discrete and often different percepts are linked together. The Rutgers Acquired Equivalence Test investigates a specific kind of associative learning, visually guided equivalence learning. The test consists of an acquisition (pair learning) and a test (rule transfer) phase, which are associated primarily with the function of the basal ganglia and the hippocampi, respectively. Earlier studies described that both fundamentally-involved brain structures in the visual associative learning, the basal ganglia and the hippocampi, receive not only visual but also multisensory information. However, no study has investigated whether there is a priority for multisensory guided equivalence learning compared to unimodal ones. Thus we had no data about the modality-dependence or independence of the equivalence learning. In the present study, we have therefore introduced the auditory- and multisensory (audiovisual)-guided equivalence learning paradigms and investigated the performance of 151 healthy volunteers in the visual as well as in the auditory and multisensory paradigms. Our results indicated that visual, auditory and multisensory guided associative learning is similarly effective in healthy humans, which suggest that the acquisition phase is fairly independent from the modality of the stimuli. On the other hand, in the test phase, where participants were presented with acquisitions that were learned earlier and associations that were until then not seen or heard but predictable, the multisensory stimuli elicited the best performance. The test phase, especially its generalization part, seems to be a harder cognitive task, where the multisensory information processing could improve the performance of the participants.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acoustic Stimulation
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Association Learning / physiology*
  • Auditory Perception
  • Basal Ganglia / physiology*
  • Female
  • Healthy Volunteers
  • Hippocampus / physiology*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Visual Perception
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

AN received the award. Grant number: Hungarian Brain Research Program Grant KTIA_13_NAP-A-I/15. The full name of the funder: Hungarian Brain Research Program, http://www.agykutatas.com. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.