Neural Representations of Procedural Knowledge

Although declarative concepts (e.g., apple) have been shown to be identifiable from their functional MRI (fMRI) signatures, the correspondence has yet to be established for executing a complex procedure such as tying a knot. In this study, 7 participants were trained to tie seven knots. Their neural representations of these seven procedures were assessed with fMRI as they imagined tying each knot. A subset of the trained participants physically tied each knot in a later fMRI session. Findings demonstrated that procedural knowledge of tying a particular knot can be reliably identified from its fMRI signature, and such procedural signatures were found here in frontal, parietal, motor, and cerebellar regions. In addition, a classifier trained on mental tying signatures was able to reliably identify when participants were planning to tie knots before they physically tied them, which suggests that the mental-tying and physical-tying procedural signatures are similar. These findings indicate that fMRI activation patterns can illuminate the representation and organization of procedural knowledge.