Brain Mechanisms of Concept Learning

Dagmar Zeithamova, Michael L. Mack, Kurt Braunlich, Tyler Davis, Carol A. Seger, Marlieke T.R. van Kesteren, Andreas Wutz

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Concept learning, the ability to extract commonalities and highlight distinctions across a set of related experiences to build organized knowledge, is a critical aspect of cognition. Previous reviews have focused on concept learning research as a means for dissociating multiple brain systems. The current review surveys recent work that uses novel analytical approaches, including the combination of computational modeling with neural measures, focused on testing theories of specific computations and representations that contribute to concept learning. We discuss in detail the roles of the hippocampus, ventromedial prefrontal, lateral prefrontal, and lateral parietal cortices, and how their engagement is modulated by the coherence of experiences and the current learning goals. We conclude that the interaction of multiple brain systems relating to learning, memory, attention, perception, and reward support a flexible concept-learning mechanism that adapts to a range of category structures and incorporates motivational states, making concept learning a fruitful research domain for understanding the neural dynamics underlying complex behaviors.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)8259-8266
Number of pages8
JournalThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
Volume39
Issue number42
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 Oct 2019

Funding

This work was supported in part by NSERC Discovery Grant RGPIN-2017-06753 (M.L.M.), Lewis Family Endowment that supports the Lewis Center for Neuroimaging at the University of Oregon (D.Z.), Chang Jiang Scholars program of the Ministry of Education, China (C.A.S.), Marie Curie Individual Fellowship of the EU Horizon 2020 Framework Program for Research and Innovation 704506 (M.T.R.v.K.), National Institutes of Health R01MH065252 and R37MH087027 (A.W.), MIT Picower Institute Innovation Fund (A.W.), and Austrian Science Fund M02496 (A.W.). The authors declare no competing financial interests. *D.Z. and M.L.M. contributed equally to this work; the remaining authors are listed in an alphabetical order.

FundersFunder number
Lewis Family Endowment
MIT Picower Institute Innovation Fund
National Institutes of HealthR01MH065252
National Institute of Mental HealthR37MH087027
University of Oregon
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of CanadaRGPIN-2017-06753
Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China
Austrian Science FundM02496
Horizon 2020704506

    Keywords

    • categorization
    • computational modeling
    • fMRI
    • hippocampus
    • parietal cortex
    • prefrontal cortex

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