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Language learning in the adult brain: disrupting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex facilitates word-form learning

Adults do not learn languages as easily as children do. It has been hypothesized that the late-developing prefrontal cortex that supports executive functions competes with procedural learning mechanisms that are important for language learning. To address this hypothesis, we tested whether a tempora...

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Autores principales: Smalle, Eleonore H. M., Panouilleres, Muriel, Szmalec, Arnaud, Möttönen, Riikka
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5656634/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29070879
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-14547-x
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author Smalle, Eleonore H. M.
Panouilleres, Muriel
Szmalec, Arnaud
Möttönen, Riikka
author_facet Smalle, Eleonore H. M.
Panouilleres, Muriel
Szmalec, Arnaud
Möttönen, Riikka
author_sort Smalle, Eleonore H. M.
collection PubMed
description Adults do not learn languages as easily as children do. It has been hypothesized that the late-developing prefrontal cortex that supports executive functions competes with procedural learning mechanisms that are important for language learning. To address this hypothesis, we tested whether a temporary neural disruption of the left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) can improve implicit, procedural learning of word-forms in adults. Young adults were presented with repeating audio-visual sequences of syllables for immediate serial recall in a Hebb repetition learning task that simulates word-form learning. Inhibitory theta-burst Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation was applied to the left DLPFC or to the control site before the Hebb task. The DLPFC-disrupted group showed enhanced learning of the novel phonological sequences relative to the control group. Moreover, learning was negatively correlated with executive functions that rely on the DLPFC in the control group, but not in the DLPFC-disrupted group. The results support the hypothesis that a mature prefrontal cortex competes with implicit learning of word-forms. The findings provide new insight into the competition between brain mechanisms that contribute to language learning in the adult brain.
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spelling pubmed-56566342017-10-31 Language learning in the adult brain: disrupting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex facilitates word-form learning Smalle, Eleonore H. M. Panouilleres, Muriel Szmalec, Arnaud Möttönen, Riikka Sci Rep Article Adults do not learn languages as easily as children do. It has been hypothesized that the late-developing prefrontal cortex that supports executive functions competes with procedural learning mechanisms that are important for language learning. To address this hypothesis, we tested whether a temporary neural disruption of the left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) can improve implicit, procedural learning of word-forms in adults. Young adults were presented with repeating audio-visual sequences of syllables for immediate serial recall in a Hebb repetition learning task that simulates word-form learning. Inhibitory theta-burst Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation was applied to the left DLPFC or to the control site before the Hebb task. The DLPFC-disrupted group showed enhanced learning of the novel phonological sequences relative to the control group. Moreover, learning was negatively correlated with executive functions that rely on the DLPFC in the control group, but not in the DLPFC-disrupted group. The results support the hypothesis that a mature prefrontal cortex competes with implicit learning of word-forms. The findings provide new insight into the competition between brain mechanisms that contribute to language learning in the adult brain. Nature Publishing Group UK 2017-10-25 /pmc/articles/PMC5656634/ /pubmed/29070879 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-14547-x Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Smalle, Eleonore H. M.
Panouilleres, Muriel
Szmalec, Arnaud
Möttönen, Riikka
Language learning in the adult brain: disrupting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex facilitates word-form learning
title Language learning in the adult brain: disrupting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex facilitates word-form learning
title_full Language learning in the adult brain: disrupting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex facilitates word-form learning
title_fullStr Language learning in the adult brain: disrupting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex facilitates word-form learning
title_full_unstemmed Language learning in the adult brain: disrupting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex facilitates word-form learning
title_short Language learning in the adult brain: disrupting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex facilitates word-form learning
title_sort language learning in the adult brain: disrupting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex facilitates word-form learning
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5656634/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29070879
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-14547-x
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