Thaindian News

London, April 7 (IANS) Non-conscious learning systems use areas of the brain that are simpler and evolutionarily older, says new research.
The study involved an investigation into the limbic striatum, one of the evolutionarily oldest parts of the brain, and the ability to learn movements, consciously and unconsciously, through repetition.

“Our results strongly substantiate the theories that say that the implicit, by which I mean non-conscious, learning systems of the brain are simpler and evolutionarily older,” says Fredrik Ullen, associate professor from Karolinska Institutet and the Stockholm Brain Institute.

Many of the mundane skills that we apply every day, such as buttoning up a shirt or playing an instrument, comprise a sequence of discrete movements that must be carried out in the correct order.

Scientists have long known that there are two learning systems for such patterns of movement; with the implicit system, we learn without being aware of the fact and without conscious training, such as through simple repetition.

The explicit system, on the other hand, we use when we consciously train and are aware of what we are learning, says a Karolinska Institutet release.

“We probably have certain fundamental learning systems in common not only with rats, mice and other mammals, but also with the most primitive vertebrates, which also have a limbic striatum,” says Ullen.

In the future, a better understanding of how these learning systems work can be of use in developing new treatments for diseases such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s.

These findings were published in PNAS, the journal of the American Academy of Sciences,