The study represents a new frontier in the science of human learning. It shows that it is possible to create knowledge directly in the brain, bypassing traditional methods such as practice or explicit instruction. This revolutionary, noninvasive approach has important implications for education, cognitive science, and even medicine, and promises to open new avenues for understanding the brain and advancing neural technology.
The human brain is an incredible learning machine, constantly processing information in a variety of ways. Sometimes we learn without realizing it, such as when we identify patterns by repeatedly observing something in the world around us. Other times, learning is intentional, such as when we receive direct instruction.
Previous research has shown that the brain records these learnings in specific patterns of activity. For example, when we learn to categorize objects, such as sorting fruit from tools, the brain organizes the activity so that items within a category have patterns that are more similar to each other and more different from other categories.
With this understanding in mind, the scientists asked themselves: would it be possible to create new categories directly in the brain, without the need for the person to go through the experience or conventional study? The idea was to use an advanced technique to “sculpt” patterns of activity in the brain that simulated those generated by real learning.
This approach was called neural sculpting, and the goal was to see if it would be possible to alter people’s perceptions, allowing them to recognize these artificial categories as well as those created by direct learning.
To accomplish this feat, the researchers used a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) neurofeedback. This technology monitors brain activity in real time, identifying areas that are most active and providing data every few seconds.
Using this data, the scientists manipulated brain activity, molding it like clay, to create patterns corresponding to fictitious categories of complex visual objects. Here’s how the method worked:
While participants were in the fMRI scanner, the researchers monitored areas of the brain related to visual perception and categorization. They established an “ideal pattern” of activity for the categories they wanted to create.
Whenever the participant’s brain approached this pattern, they received a positive visual stimulus, as a signal indicating success. This feedback trained the brain, adjusting its activity to align with the desired pattern, even if the participant was not aware of what was happening.
By repeating this process over and over, the brain was eventually molded to display the specific patterns. After sculpting these neural patterns, the scientists compared the results with control categories that had not been worked on.
This comparison was essential to confirm that the changes they observed were caused by neurofeedback. The results were striking: The brain showed distinct patterns of activity for the created categories, similar to the patterns for naturally learned categories.
What’s more, participants performed better on tasks involving the sculpted categories, showing that the changes in the brain resulted in real differences in perception.
A) The study took place in several phases over the course of 9 to 10 days. Participants underwent baseline and final behavioral tests, as well as several sessions in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner. B) During these sessions, 25 shapes were used to map how the brain organizes visual information. C) The scientists created ideal patterns of brain activity for these shapes and compared them with the actual brain responses. The results showed that the participants’ brains represented these shapes very closely to the ideal pattern (97% correlation), highlighting the accuracy of the training. D) The brain areas involved included visual regions and other areas linked to memory and perception.
This technique is innovative because it goes beyond what traditional neurofeedback used to do, which was to simply reinforce existing patterns in the brain. Here, the scientists created something entirely new.
It is as if the brain had learned something from scratch, but without going through lessons or hands-on experience. This demonstrates that changes in brain activity can lead to perceptual and behavioral changes.
Although the results are promising, the researchers identified some limitations. Some participants reported feeling tired during the sessions, which may have affected their performance.
Furthermore, while the changes in brain activity were clear, the effects on behavior were not always significant, indicating that there is still much to be explored about how these brain changes translate into conscious actions.
This study represents an important advance in neuroscience. It not only reveals new ways of understanding how the brain learns and processes information, but also opens the door to practical applications in areas such as memory, decision-making, and even rehabilitation of cognitive conditions.
For example, the method could be used to treat conditions such as depression or anxiety by adjusting neural patterns in a non-invasive way.
Furthermore, the ability to create artificial categories in the brain could revolutionize the field of cognitive science. It allows researchers to causally test how neural patterns influence human behavior.
In the future, this technique could even be used to teach complex concepts or skills directly to the brain, without the need for traditional learning methods.
The study demonstrates that learning can go beyond practice and instruction. It proves that it is possible to “shape” the human brain to create new insights and knowledge.
This discovery not only challenges what we know about learning, but also opens a new chapter in the interplay between technology and the workings of the mind. Neural sculpting is a shining example of how science and innovation can push the boundaries of what is possible.
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Sculpting new visual categories into the human brain
Coraline Rinn Iordan, Victoria J. H. Ritvo, Kenneth A. Norman, Nicholas B. Turk-Browne, and Jonathan D. Cohen
PNAS. December 3, 2024. 121 (50) e2410445121
Abstract:
Learning requires changing the brain. This typically occurs through experience, study, or instruction. We report an alternate route for humans to acquire visual knowledge, through the direct sculpting of activity patterns in the human brain that mirror those expected to arise through learning. We used neurofeedback from closed-loop real-time functional MRI to create new categories of visual objects in the brain, without the participants’ explicit awareness. After neural sculpting, participants exhibited behavioral and neural biases for the learned, but not for the control categories. The ability to sculpt new perceptual distinctions into the human brain offers a noninvasive research paradigm for causal testing of the link between neural representations and behavior. As such, beyond its current application to perception, our work potentially has broad relevance for advancing understanding in other domains of cognition such as decision-making, memory, and motor control.
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