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Learning new color names produces rapid increase in gray matter in the intact adult human cortex

brenda 添加于 2011-4-8 00:53 | 2302 次阅读 | 0 个评论

作者
Kwok V, Niu Z, Kay P, Zhou K, Mo L, Jin Z, So K-F, Tan LH
摘要
The human brain has been shown to exhibit changes in the volume and density of gray matter as a result of training over periods of several weeks or longer. We show that these changes can be induced much faster by using a training method that is claimed to simulate the rapid learning of word meanings by children. Using whole-brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) we show that learning newly defined and named subcategories of the universal categories green and blue in a period of 2 h increases the volume of gray matter in V2/3 of the left visual cortex, a region known to mediate color vision. This pattern of findings demonstrates that the anatomical structure of the adult human brain can change very quickly, specifically during the acquisition of new, named categories. Also, prior behavioral and neuroimaging research has shown that differences between languages in the boundaries of named color categories influence the categorical perception of color, as assessed by judgments of relative similarity, by response time in alternative forced-choice tasks, and by visual search. Moreover, further behavioral studies (visual search) and brain imaging studies have suggested strongly that the categorical effect of language on color processing is left-lateralized, i.e., mediated by activity in the left cerebral hemisphere in adults (hence “lateralized Whorfian” effects). The present results appear to provide a structural basis in the brain for the behavioral and neurophysiologically observed indices of these Whorfian effects on color processing.
详细资料
- 文献种类:期刊
- 期刊名称: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- 期刊缩写: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- ISBN: 0027-8424
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成人大脑结构比先前认为更具可塑性

早年于香港大学获得博士学位的谭力海教授是认知研究方面的专家，主要研究领域是运用脑成像技术(fMRI and PET)与认知心理学研究方法探索人类神经解剖结构与认知过程发生机理，并取得了丰硕的研究成果。曾在2001年获得标志性的成果：发现中国人的大脑语言区主要位于左半球额中回第9区和第46区，这颠覆了之前西方科学家提出的在左半球额下回前侧的理论。

近日谭力海研究组在新研究中发现成年人的大脑在经过仅仅2小时的“像儿童一样”的学习之后出现了生长，证实完好的成人大脑比以前认为的在结构上更加可塑。这一研究成果公布在4月4日的美国《国家科学院院刊》（PNAS）上。

在这篇文章中，谭力海及其同事对19名成年受试者进行了一种特殊的训练。这种训练被设计成模仿出现在儿童期早期的语言发育阶段的迅速而密集的词语-物体关联。研究人员使用听觉、命名和匹配任务教给参加者两种绿色色泽和两种蓝色色泽的人工名字。这些受试者大脑的影响表明，在3天时间里分5次进行的总计1小时48分的训练后，受试者的大脑灰质在与彩色视觉与感知有关的区域的容量增加了。此前的研究曾证实成年人在接受数周到数年的长期训练后，大脑中的灰质的容积和密度会发生改变。新研究结果表明完好的成人大脑比此前认为的在结构上更加可塑。

谭力海教授表示：“研究结果不仅为我们提供了新的结构证据，并进一步支持了此前的一些关于语言和颜色的感知试验。这些实验表明已命名的颜色类别的界限能影响人们感知颜色差异的能力。”（来源：生物通何嫱）

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Learning new color names produces rapid increase in gray matter in the intact adult human cortex

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