Elsevier

Biological Psychology

Volume 78, Issue 3, July 2008, Pages 221-230
Biological Psychology

Electrophysiological markers of skill-related neuroplasticity

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2008.03.014Get rights and content

Abstract

Neuroplasticity involved in acquiring a new cognitive skill was investigated with standard time domain event-related potentials (ERPs) of scalp-recorded electroencephalographic (EEG) activity and frequency domain analysis of EEG oscillations looking at the event-related synchronization (ERS) and desynchronization (ERD) of neural activity. Electroencephalographic activity was recorded before and after practice, while participants performed alphabet addition (i.e., E + 3 = G, true or false?). Participant's performance became automated with practice through a switch in cognitive strategy from mentally counting-up in the alphabet to retrieving the answer from memory. Time domain analysis of the ERPs revealed a prominent positive peak at ∼300 ms that was not reactive to problem attributes but was reduced with practice. A second prominent positive peak observed at ∼500 ms was found to be larger after practice, mainly for problems presented with correct answers. Frequency domain spectral analyses yielded two distinct findings: (1) a frontal midline ERS of theta activity that was greater after practice, and (2) a beta band ERD that increased with problem difficulty before, but not after practice. Because the EEG oscillations were not phase locked to the stimulus, they were viewed as being independent of the time domain results. Consequently, use of time and frequency domain analyses provides a more comprehensive account of the underlying electrophysiological data than either method alone. When used in combination with a well-defined cognitive/behavioral paradigm, this approach serves to constrain the interpretations of EEG data and sets a new standard for studying the neuroplasticity involved in skill acquisition.

Section snippets

Dynamic changes in EEG rhymicities: assessment of locked and unlocked activity

Because the dynamic underpinnings of event-related changes in brain activity are inherently complex, other sophisticated analysis paradigms are required to provide a more comprehensive account of the underlying neural activity (e.g., Pfurtscheller and Lopes da Silva, 1999). Accordingly, stimulus or cognitive related changes in EEG oscillations can be quantified as event-related synchronizations (ERSs; increases in EEG power) and event-related desynchronizations (ERDs; decreases in EEG power) at

Participants

Ten undergraduate students from Union College (five males, five females ranging in age from 19 to 22 years) participated in this study. None of the individuals reported a history of medical or neurological problems and all reported normal visual acuity. Some individuals were paid forty dollars for their participation, while others volunteered for the experiment in order to obtain out-of-class credit for an introductory psychology course. In the latter case, participants were compensated with 2 h

Behavioral data

The data are summarized in two sections: section one provides an analysis from the practice sessions and section two provides an analysis from the EEG recordings. With respect to the behavioral data, changes in RT, accuracy, and strategy showed clear effects of practice (Fig. 1a–c). As mentioned previously, RT speed-up with practice is well characterized by a power function. In log–log coordinates the power function becomes a linear function, which allows for easier assessment of deviations

Discussion

The behavioral results presented herein constitute direct replications of earlier studies with the alphabet-addition task (Logan, 1988, Rickard, 1997). These findings demonstrate that participants became more skilled at the alphabet-addition task by responding faster and more accurately after practice. Furthermore, the data on strategy probing (Fig. 1c) and the non-linearity in the power function fits support earlier findings, indicating that gains in performance were due to a shift in strategy

Summary

The present study combined scalp recordings of electrophysiological activity with a well-understood cognitive/behavioral paradigm to study neuroplasticity involved in the acquisition of a previously unlearned skill. The results provide evidence that: (1) EEG and ERP analyses can be used in a complementary fashion to study skill-related neuroplasticity due to a change in cognitive strategy in previously unlearned tasks; (2) the ∼300 ms ERP peak may be associated with control processing; (3) the

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