Resting-State fMRI Activity Predicts Unsupervised Learning and Memory in an Immersive Virtual Reality Environment

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0109622
• Publication Date: 2014-10-06T17:55:12Z
• Authors: Chi Wah Wong; Valur Olafsson; Markus Plank; Joseph Snider; Eric Halgren; Howard Poizner; Thomas T. Liu
• Keywords: Parahippocampal gyrus; Fusiform gyrus

In the real world, learning often proceeds in an unsupervised manner without explicit instructions or feedback. this study, we employed experimental paradigm which subjects explored immersive virtual reality environment on each of two days. On day 1, implicitly learned location 39 objects fashion. 2, locations some were changed, and object recall performance was assessed found to vary across subjects. As prior work had shown that functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measures resting-state brain activity can predict various individuals, examined whether fMRI could be used performance. We a significant correlation between variability signal basal ganglia, hippocampus, amygdala, thalamus, insula, regions frontal temporal lobes, important for spatial exploration, learning, memory, decision making. addition, significantly correlated with connectivity left caudate right fusiform gyrus, lateral occipital complex, superior gyrus. Given ganglia's role these findings suggest tighter integration systems responsible exploration visuospatial processing may critical complex environment.