Expertise reduces neural cost but does not modulate repetition suppression

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Expertise Studies

Background:

• Repetition suppression, a phenomenon where repeated stimuli elicit reduced neural responses, is a key indicator of efficient neural processing.
• The influence of domain-specific expertise on repetition suppression, particularly in complex visual tasks, remains largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether expertise in architecture modulates repetition suppression in brain regions associated with visual processing.
• To compare neural responses to building stimuli between architecture students and control students using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Main Methods:

• Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed to measure brain activity.
• Participants included architecture students and students from other disciplines, who viewed images of buildings.
• Behavioral measures of response latency and neural activation patterns in specific brain regions were analyzed.

Main Results:

• All participants exhibited shorter response latencies with target repetition, indicating a general repetition suppression effect.
• Reduced neural responses in the fusiform gyrus (FG) and parahippocampal cortex (PHC) were observed with stimulus repetition across all participants.
• Architecture students did not show the same correlation between reaction times and activation in control regions (e.g., cuneus, insula) as non-experts, suggesting more efficient processing.

Conclusions:

• Expertise, specifically in architecture, leads to more efficient encoding and detection of domain-specific stimuli (buildings).
• Architects demonstrated a lower neural cost for processing building stimuli compared to non-experts.
• These findings highlight the role of expertise in shaping neural processing efficiency and reducing cognitive load.