Brain changes that enable good visual discrimination learning
Our visual perception of the world is often considered relatively stable. However, like all of our cognitive functions, visual processing is shaped by our experiences. During development and adulthood, learning can change visual perception. For example, enhanced visual discrimination of the same pattern is a learned skill that is essential for reading. In a new research study published in Current Biology, scientists have now discovered the neural changes that occur during learning to increase discrimination of closely related visual images. This study, led by first author Dr. Joseph Schumacher and senior author Dr. David Fitzpatrick at Florida’s Max Planck Institute of Neuroscience, sets out a transformative approach to studying perceptual learning in the brain. The researchers imaged the activity of a large number of single neurons over days to track changes that occur when the visual discrimination task is studied, performing these experiments in a new animal model, the tree m