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Remembrance of things practiced: Fast and slow learning in cortical and subcortical pathways

View ORCID ProfileJames M. Murray, G. Sean Escola
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/797548
James M. Murray
Zuckerman Mind, Brain, and Behavior Institute, Columbia University
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  • For correspondence: jm4347@columbia.edu
G. Sean Escola
Zuckerman Mind, Brain, and Behavior Institute, Columbia University
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Abstract

The learning of motor skills unfolds over multiple timescales, with rapid initial gains in performance followed by a longer period in which the behavior becomes more refined, habitual, and automatized. While recent lesion and inactivation experiments have provided hints about how various brain areas might contribute to such learning, their precise roles and the neural mechanisms underlying them are not well understood. In this work, we propose neural- and circuit-level mechanisms by which motor cortex, thalamus, and striatum support such learning. In this model, the combination of fast cortical learning and slow subcortical learning gives rise to a covert learning process through which control of behavior is gradually transferred from cortical to subcortical circuits, while protecting learned behaviors that are practiced repeatedly against overwriting by future learning. Together, these results point to a new computational role for thalamus in motor learning, and, more broadly, provide a framework for understanding the neural basis of habit formation and the automatization of behavior through practice.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted January 24, 2020.
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Remembrance of things practiced: Fast and slow learning in cortical and subcortical pathways
James M. Murray, G. Sean Escola
bioRxiv 797548; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/797548
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Remembrance of things practiced: Fast and slow learning in cortical and subcortical pathways
James M. Murray, G. Sean Escola
bioRxiv 797548; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/797548

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