K. Shibata, T. Watanabe, Y. Sasaki, M. Kawato. Perceptual Learning
Incepted by Decoded fMRI Neurofeedback Without Stimulus Presentation.
Science, 2011; 334 (6061): 1413 DOI:

一组计算神经科学家们最近发表他们的研究报告表明，

甚至在不清醒的状态下学习武术、驾驶飞机或者学说新语言的梦想
即将变成现实。美国波士顿大学和日本京都国际电气通信基础技术研究所计算神经
学实验室(ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories)的科学家认为，未来
学习一项新技能只需坐在电脑显示器前，等待把该技术“下载”到大脑里即可。

他们一直在研究功能磁共振成像机(FMRI)如何通过传递信号改变一些人的大脑
活跃模式，来“诱使”知识经过他们的视觉皮质。这一过程被称作Decoded
Neurofeedback或者DecNef。在这期间不需任何药物，试验对象甚至不必处于清醒
状态，他或她只要把他们的大脑活性改变成“目标”模式，这些模式可以是从足球
明星到象棋大师中的任何一种。第一论文作者、波士顿大学的塔克奥-瓦塔纳贝说
：“成年早期的可视面积为了促进视知觉学习，具有充分可塑性。”

　研究人员知道他们的方法已经生效，因为功能磁共振成像志愿者都经历了视觉
技能测试，并把他们的结果与未接受这种治疗的人的结果进行对比，最终前者的得
分更高。《黑客帝国》三部曲里的人物通过嵌入到他们大脑里的电脑学习新技能，
每次学习时，他们只需把新技能上传到他们的大脑里。研究人员表示，我们距离把
这种事情变成现实已经不远。他们的研究结果发表在《科学》杂志上。

 

ScienceDaily (Dec. 12, 2011) — New research published December 8 in the journal Science suggests it may be possible to use brain technology to learn to play a piano, reduce mental stress or hit a curve ball with little or no conscious effort. It's the kind of thing seen in Hollywood's "Matrix" franchise.

Experiments conducted at Boston University (BU) and ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan, recently demonstrated that through a person's visual cortex, researchers could use decoded functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to induce brain activity patterns to match a previously known target state and thereby improve performance on visual tasks.

Think of a person watching a computer screen and having his or her brain patterns modified to match those of a high-performing athlete or modified to recuperate from an accident or disease. Though preliminary, researchers say such possibilities may exist in the future.

"Adult early visual areas are sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual learning," said lead author and BU neuroscientist Takeo Watanabe of the part of the brain analyzed in the study.

Neuroscientists have found that pictures gradually build up inside a person's brain, appearing first as lines, edges, shapes, colors and motion in early visual areas. The brain then fills in greater detail to make a red ball appear as a red ball, for example.

Researchers studied the early visual areas for their ability to cause improvements in visual performance and learning.

"Some previous research confirmed a correlation between improving visual performance and changes in early visual areas, while other researchers found correlations in higher visual and decision areas," said Watanabe, director of BU's Visual Science Laboratory. "However, none of these studies directly addressed the question of whether early visual areas are sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual learning." Until now.

Boston University post-doctoral fellow Kazuhisa Shibata designed and implemented a method using decoded fMRI neurofeedback to induce a particular activation pattern in targeted early visual areas that corresponded to a pattern evoked by a specific visual feature in a brain region of interest. The researchers then tested whether repetitions of the activation pattern caused visual performance improvement on that visual feature.

The result, say researchers, is a novel learning approach sufficient to cause long-lasting improvement in tasks that require visual performance.

What's more, the approached worked even when test subjects were not aware of what they were learning.

"The most surprising thing in this study is that mere inductions of neural activation patterns corresponding to a specific visual feature led to visual performance improvement on the visual feature, without presenting the feature or subjects' awareness of what was to be learned," said Watanabe, who developed the idea for the research project along with Mitsuo Kawato, director of ATR lab and Yuka Sasaki, an assistant in neuroscience at Massachusetts General Hospital.

"We found that subjects were not aware of what was to be learned while behavioral data obtained before and after the neurofeedback training showed that subjects' visual performance improved specifically for the target orientation, which was used in the neurofeedback training," he said.

The finding brings up an inevitable question. Is hypnosis or a type of automated learning a potential outcome of the research?

"In theory, hypnosis or a type of automated learning is a potential outcome," said Kawato. "However, in this study we confirmed the validity of our method only in visual perceptual learning. So we have to test if the method works in other types of learning in the future. At the same time, we have to be careful so that this method is not used in an unethical way."

At present, the decoded neurofeedback method might be used for various types of learning, including memory, motor and rehabilitation.

The National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan supported the research.