title: Developing intuition: neural correlates of cognitive-skill learning in caudate nucleus.
abstract: The superior capability of cognitive experts largely depends on automatic, quick information processing, which is often referred to as intuition. Intuition develops following extensive long-term training. There are many cognitive models on intuition development, but its neural basis is not known. Here we trained novices for 15 weeks to learn a simple board game and measured their brain activities in early and end phases of the training while they quickly generated the best next-move to a given board pattern. We found that the activation in the head of caudate nucleus developed over the course of training, in parallel to the development of the capability to quickly generate the best next-move, and the magnitude of the caudate activity was correlated with the subject's performance. In contrast, cortical activations, which already appeared in the early phase of training, did not further change. Thus, neural activation in the caudate head, but not those in cortical areas, tracked the development of capability to quickly generate the best next-move, indicating that circuitries including the caudate head may automate cognitive computations.
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Brain Mapping Laboratory and Support Unit for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.
authors.forename: Xiaohong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Takano
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Asamizuya
authors.forename: Chisato
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Kenichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ueno
authors.forename: Kang
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Keiji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tanaka
mesh_terms: D001931:Brain Mapping; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D019545:Intuition / Q000502:physiology*; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010988:Play and Playthings; D055815:Young Adult