A lifespan perspective of visual learning and plasticity

• Applicant: Sebastian Frank, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology ; Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 491290285

The human brain is highly plastic, meaning that it can change in response to experience or training. Plasticity even occurs in sensory systems such as the visual system. For example, repeated exposure or practice of a visual feature such as orientation may lead to visual plasticity and long-lasting changes in the visual perception of this feature, a phenomenon referred to as visual perceptual learning (VPL). Although previous research in VPL has provided deep insights into mechanisms involved in learning and plasticity, it is still not well understood, whether, and if so, how these mechanisms change over the life span. The objectives of this proposal aim to elucidate the mechanisms of VPL and visual plasticity in childhood, in young adulthood and in older adulthood to increase our understanding of important changes in learning and brain plasticity over the course of life and the mechanisms contributing to these developmental changes. We will particularly focus on the contributions of inhibitory processing for developmental changes in VPL and visual plasticity. Inhibitory processing can occur locally (e.g., within the visual cortex) or in a top-down fashion from higher-order brain regions (e.g., from prefrontal cortex). We will investigate the hypothesis that changes in local and top-down inhibitory processing over the course of life render mechanisms of VPL and visual plasticity fundamentally different between childhood, young adulthood and older adulthood. To address our objectives we will use a combination of psychophysics and magnetic resonance brain imaging, including magnetic resonance spectroscopy to measure GABAergic inhibitory processing. We will also investigate mechanisms of VPL and visual plasticity in older adults with early-stage dementia (so called “amnestic mild cognitive impairment” or “aMCI”) with a particular focus on the hypothesis that subjects with aMCI might exhibit a more pronounced local inhibitory processing in VPL and visual plasticity as a result of impaired top-down inhibition. Using VPL and visual plasticity as a model, the results of the proposed research will help to understand how mechanisms of learning and plasticity change over the life span and highlight the important contributions of inhibitory processing for these developmental changes.

• DFG Programme: Independent Junior Research Groups