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The Power of Interstimulus Interval for the Assessment of Temporal Processing in Rodents
Published on: April 19, 2019
The essential role of stimulus temporal patterning in enabling perceptual learning
Shu-Guang Kuai1, Jun-Yun Zhang, Stanley A Klein
1Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
Abstract:
Little is known about how temporal stimulus factors influence perceptual learning. Here we demonstrate an essential role of stimulus temporal patterning in enabling perceptual learning by showing that 'unlearnable' contrast and motion-direction discrimination (resulting from random interleaving of stimuli) can be readily learned when stimuli are practiced in a fixed temporal pattern. This temporal patterning does not facilitate learning by reducing stimulus uncertainty; further, learning enabled by temporal patterning can later generalize to randomly presented stimuli.
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