Long-Term Visual Memory and Its Role in Learning Suppression
Long-term memory is a core aspect of human learning that permits a wide range of skills and behaviors often important for survival. While this core ability has been broadly observed for procedural and declarative memory, whether similar mechanisms subserve basic sensory or perceptual processes remai...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2018-10-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01896/full |
| _version_ | 1818506185385443328 |
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| author | Gabriel N. Friedman Lance Johnson Ziv M. Williams Ziv M. Williams Ziv M. Williams |
| author_facet | Gabriel N. Friedman Lance Johnson Ziv M. Williams Ziv M. Williams Ziv M. Williams |
| author_sort | Gabriel N. Friedman |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Long-term memory is a core aspect of human learning that permits a wide range of skills and behaviors often important for survival. While this core ability has been broadly observed for procedural and declarative memory, whether similar mechanisms subserve basic sensory or perceptual processes remains unclear. Here, we use a visual learning paradigm to show that training humans to search for common visual features in the environment leads to a persistent improvement in performance over consecutive days but, surprisingly, suppresses the subsequent ability to learn similar visual features. This suppression is reversed if the memory is prevented from consolidating, while still permitting the ability to learn multiple visual features simultaneously. These findings reveal a memory mechanism that may enable salient sensory patterns to persist in memory over prolonged durations, but which also functions to prevent false-positive detection by proactively suppressing new learning. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T22:01:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-26f101e5993442c6bf55416ab77ab32c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T22:01:05Z |
| publishDate | 2018-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-26f101e5993442c6bf55416ab77ab32c2022-12-22T01:31:53ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782018-10-01910.3389/fpsyg.2018.01896348422Long-Term Visual Memory and Its Role in Learning SuppressionGabriel N. Friedman0Lance Johnson1Ziv M. Williams2Ziv M. Williams3Ziv M. Williams4Department of Neurosurgery, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United StatesDepartment of Neurobiology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United StatesDepartment of Neurosurgery, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United StatesHarvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology, Boston, MA, United StatesProgram in Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Boston, MA, United StatesLong-term memory is a core aspect of human learning that permits a wide range of skills and behaviors often important for survival. While this core ability has been broadly observed for procedural and declarative memory, whether similar mechanisms subserve basic sensory or perceptual processes remains unclear. Here, we use a visual learning paradigm to show that training humans to search for common visual features in the environment leads to a persistent improvement in performance over consecutive days but, surprisingly, suppresses the subsequent ability to learn similar visual features. This suppression is reversed if the memory is prevented from consolidating, while still permitting the ability to learn multiple visual features simultaneously. These findings reveal a memory mechanism that may enable salient sensory patterns to persist in memory over prolonged durations, but which also functions to prevent false-positive detection by proactively suppressing new learning.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01896/fulllong-term memoryvisual memorylearning suppressionvisual searchmemory consolidation |
| spellingShingle | Gabriel N. Friedman Lance Johnson Ziv M. Williams Ziv M. Williams Ziv M. Williams Long-Term Visual Memory and Its Role in Learning Suppression Frontiers in Psychology long-term memory visual memory learning suppression visual search memory consolidation |
| title | Long-Term Visual Memory and Its Role in Learning Suppression |
| title_full | Long-Term Visual Memory and Its Role in Learning Suppression |
| title_fullStr | Long-Term Visual Memory and Its Role in Learning Suppression |
| title_full_unstemmed | Long-Term Visual Memory and Its Role in Learning Suppression |
| title_short | Long-Term Visual Memory and Its Role in Learning Suppression |
| title_sort | long term visual memory and its role in learning suppression |
| topic | long-term memory visual memory learning suppression visual search memory consolidation |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01896/full |
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