Prefrontal Cortex Contributions to Learning in Infancy

Werchan, Denise

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Year:: 2020
Contributor:: Werchan, Denise (creator); Amso, Dima (Advisor); Bath, Kevin (Reader); Frank, Michael (Reader); Brown University. Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences (sponsor)
Genre:: theses
Subject:: Cognitive neuroscience; Psychology; Developmental psychology
Extent:: ix, 204 p.

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Abstract:: In early postnatal life, infants are faced with complex changing and noisy environments that require learning and action. Yet, relatively little is understood about how learning is accomplished in the developing brain in the absence of clear patterns or statistics that guide learning. My dissertation addresses this gap by showing that infants can exploit prefrontal-cortex (PFC) based hierarchical rule learning mechanisms to structure arbitrary inputs into organized knowledge representations, a mechanism previously considered characteristic of mature learning. In Study 1, I use a spatiotemporal eye-tracking paradigm to show that 8-month-old infants spontaneously organize visual inputs into hierarchical rules that support generalization to new contexts. I then use functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to offer neuroimaging evidence establishing the involvement of the PFC in hierarchical rule learning in 8-month-old infants in Study 2. In Study 3, I examine the flexibility of this mechanism by testing whether it contributes to the classic A-Not-B error in 9-month-old infants. Finally, in Study 4 I use a combined eye-tracking/fNIRS paradigm to examine whether the formation of hierarchical rules subsequently biases 9-month-old infants’ visual attention through feedback from the PFC to visual cortex. These studies provide evidence that the PFC is involved in organizing learning and behavior earlier in life than previously known. In light of these findings, I conclude by proposing a novel framework for understanding PFC functional development. Far from having a protracted developmental course, I argue that the PFC continuously adapts its computations to accommodate the demands present in the changing ecological niche of the growing child. In this view, PFC development is emergent from change in the feedforward inputs from the rest of the brain, the physical structure of the growing body, the content and nature of existing knowledge, and the challenges and opportunities present in the external environment. Together, this work adds new insights into the neurocognitive toolbox available to support learning in early postnatal life and provides an important theoretical advance in our understanding of the mechanisms driving PFC functional development, including its catalysts and influences.
Notes:: Thesis (Ph. D.)--Brown University, 2020

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Werchan, Denise, "Prefrontal Cortex Contributions to Learning in Infancy" (2020). Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences Theses and Dissertations. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:1129409/

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Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations for the Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences department.
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