|
Procedural learning in children with congenital anomalies of the cerebellum| old_uid | 10415 |
|---|
| title | Procedural learning in children with congenital anomalies of the cerebellum |
|---|
| start_date | 2016/01/14 |
|---|
| schedule | 10h30-12h |
|---|
| online | no |
|---|
| location_info | EuroMov |
|---|
| summary | The aim of the study was to test the role of the cerebellum in procedural learning during development. Procedural learning refers to the acquisition of abilities such as riding a bike or playing keyboard. It is usually defined as a process in which new visuomotor, perceptive or cognitive skills are acquired through repetitive training (Cohen & Squire, 1980 ; Willingham, 1998). An experimental paradigm frequently used to explore procedural learning is the serial reaction time paradigm (SRT; Nissen & Bullemer, 1987). In this task, subjects are asked to respond quickly and accurately as possible to stimuli appearing at different locations on a computer screen by pressing responding buttons; participants are not told that the stream of stimuli corresponds to a repeating sequence. Learning is demonstrated by improvement in the speed of response across trials and, more specifically, by the difference in the response latency between a random block of stimuli and the repeating sequence block, indicating clearly that skill learning is sequence-specific. Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that sequence learning is supported by the basal ganglia and the cerebellum (e.g. Jenkins et al, 1994) and the SRT paradigm has been widely used to explore learning abilities in various neurological pathologies characterized by impairments in these regions such as Parkinson’s disease (e. g. Helmuth et al, 2000). In children, the SRT paradigm has also been used to explore procedural learning in developmental disorders (e. g. Lum et al, 2012 ; Vicari et al, 2005). Twelve children with congenital anomalies of the cerebellar vermis (ACV) and 25 matched typically developing children (TD) were compared on a SRT task. Patients presented an intellectual quotient superior to 70 and did not present comorbidities. Main results demonstrated that in all children, reaction times were decreasing significantly, showing that general learning of the visuo-motor task demands was comparable between the ACV and the TD children. However, sequence specific learning differed between both groups: overall, the group of TD children showed a reliable sequence learning pattern whereas the group of ACV children failed to learn the visuo-motor sequence, giving a new evidence for the implication of the cerebellum in sequential learning and automation of new acquisitions. Data are bringing new knowledge on the learning’s slowness of cerebellar children as well as on the role of cerebellum in procedural learning through a développemental perspective. |
|---|
| responsibles | Hoffmann, Marin |
|---|
| |
|