title: Magnetic stimulation of visual cortex impairs perceptual learning.
abstract: The ability to learn and process visual stimuli more efficiently is important for survival. Previous neuroimaging studies have shown that perceptual learning on a shape identification task differently modulates activity in both frontal-parietal cortical regions and visual cortex (Sigman et al., 2005;Lewis et al., 2009). Specifically, fronto-parietal regions (i.e. intra parietal sulcus, pIPS) became less activated for trained as compared to untrained stimuli, while visual regions (i.e. V2d/V3 and LO) exhibited higher activation for familiar shape. Here, after the intensive training, we employed transcranial magnetic stimulation over both visual occipital and parietal regions, previously shown to be modulated, to investigate their causal role in learning the shape identification task. We report that interference with V2d/V3 and LO increased reaction times to learned stimuli as compared to pIPS and Sham control condition. Moreover, the impairment observed after stimulation over the two visual regions was positive correlated. These results strongly support the causal role of the visual network in the control of the perceptual learning.
authors: Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Science - and ITAB, Institute of Advanced Biomedical Technologies University "G. D'Annunzio" Via dei Vestini 33, Chieti, 66100, Italy. Electronic address: a.baldassarre@unich.it.
authors: Antonello
authors: A
authors: Baldassarre
authors: Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Science - and ITAB, Institute of Advanced Biomedical Technologies University "G. D'Annunzio" Via dei Vestini 33, Chieti, 66100, Italy. Electronic address: pcapotosto@unich.it.
authors: Paolo
authors: P
authors: Capotosto
authors: Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Science - and ITAB, Institute of Advanced Biomedical Technologies University "G. D'Annunzio" Via dei Vestini 33, Chieti, 66100, Italy.
authors: Giorgia
authors: G
authors: Committeri
authors: Department of Neurology, Radiology, Anatomy & Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St.Louis, USA; Department of Neuroscience, University of Padua, Italy.
authors: Maurizio
authors: M
authors: Corbetta
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Perceptual learning; TMS; Visual cortex