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Caudate nucleus involvement in the early stages of cognitive procedural learning
NemoImage
11, Number
5, 2000,
Part 2 of 2 Parts ID
E +l@
MEMORY
- LEARNING
CAUDATE NUCLEUS INVOLVEMENT IN THE EARLY STAGES OF COGNITIVE PROCEDURAL LEARNING angela me&l*,
jean-baptiste pocbon*, stepbane lebericyt, bernard deweer*, bernard pillon*, ricbard levy*, Jean-Baptiste Poline$, bruno dubois* *INSERM lJ289, H6pital de la Salpe^tridre, Paris
iService de Neuroradiologie
(Pr. Marsauk), Hdpital de la Salpe^trikre, Paris $C.E.A., SHFJ, Orsay
Introduction The role of the basal ganglia, including the caudate nucleus, has been previously shown in motor learning. The involvement of these structures in learning of cognitive tasks has been less studied. Several arguments, drawn from the neuropsychological literature, provide evidence for the role of the caudate nucleus in visuomotor cognitive learning. Recently, we have shown that Parkinson’s disease patients (PD) with frontal dysfunction, which may be secondary to caudate nucleus deafferentation, were impaired in the acquisition of a cognitive skill (mirror reading), whereas patients with no frontal dysfunction. i.e. patients with deafferentation restricted to the putamen, learned normally. According to this evidence, the caudate nucleus may be involved in the acquisition and/or the automatization of a new skill. To test this hypothesis, we studied cerebral activation during a mirror-reading task. Method Eight young right-handed volunteers were studied using event-related BOLD fMRI (1.5 T General Electric). Series of normal or mirrored 6-letter words were presented on a screen to each subject. Each series consisting of 6 words separated by a lo-19 set interstimulus interval. The protocol included echo planar images (14 contiguous axial slices, TR/TE = 2000/60 msec, in plane resolution 3.75x3.75) and Tl-weighted images for anatomical localization. Images were corrected for motion artifacts and normalized using the MN1 template. Individual and group analyses of the comparison mirror vs. normal reading were performed using SPM 99. Results Random effect group analysis (PiO.01) revealed activation of the head of the caudate nuclei, the medial thalamic nuclei, the superior colliculi, the middle frontal gyri (BA 6-8) the intraparietal sulci (BA 7-40) bilaterally, and the left fusiform gyms (BA 37), the right preSMA and premotor cortex (BA 6). Individual subject region-of-interest analysis (P
S412
11, Number
5, 2000,
Part 2 of 2 Parts ID
E +l@
MEMORY
- LEARNING
CAUDATE NUCLEUS INVOLVEMENT IN THE EARLY STAGES OF COGNITIVE PROCEDURAL LEARNING angela me&l*,
jean-baptiste pocbon*, stepbane lebericyt, bernard deweer*, bernard pillon*, ricbard levy*, Jean-Baptiste Poline$, bruno dubois* *INSERM lJ289, H6pital de la Salpe^tridre, Paris
iService de Neuroradiologie
(Pr. Marsauk), Hdpital de la Salpe^trikre, Paris $C.E.A., SHFJ, Orsay
Introduction The role of the basal ganglia, including the caudate nucleus, has been previously shown in motor learning. The involvement of these structures in learning of cognitive tasks has been less studied. Several arguments, drawn from the neuropsychological literature, provide evidence for the role of the caudate nucleus in visuomotor cognitive learning. Recently, we have shown that Parkinson’s disease patients (PD) with frontal dysfunction, which may be secondary to caudate nucleus deafferentation, were impaired in the acquisition of a cognitive skill (mirror reading), whereas patients with no frontal dysfunction. i.e. patients with deafferentation restricted to the putamen, learned normally. According to this evidence, the caudate nucleus may be involved in the acquisition and/or the automatization of a new skill. To test this hypothesis, we studied cerebral activation during a mirror-reading task. Method Eight young right-handed volunteers were studied using event-related BOLD fMRI (1.5 T General Electric). Series of normal or mirrored 6-letter words were presented on a screen to each subject. Each series consisting of 6 words separated by a lo-19 set interstimulus interval. The protocol included echo planar images (14 contiguous axial slices, TR/TE = 2000/60 msec, in plane resolution 3.75x3.75) and Tl-weighted images for anatomical localization. Images were corrected for motion artifacts and normalized using the MN1 template. Individual and group analyses of the comparison mirror vs. normal reading were performed using SPM 99. Results Random effect group analysis (PiO.01) revealed activation of the head of the caudate nuclei, the medial thalamic nuclei, the superior colliculi, the middle frontal gyri (BA 6-8) the intraparietal sulci (BA 7-40) bilaterally, and the left fusiform gyms (BA 37), the right preSMA and premotor cortex (BA 6). Individual subject region-of-interest analysis (P
S412