MEG Correlates of Learning Novel Objects Properties in Children

Learning the functional properties of objects is a core mechanism in the development of conceptual, cognitive and linguistic knowledge in children. The cerebral processes underlying these learning mechanisms remain unclear in adults and unexplored in children. Here, we investigated the neurophysiolo...

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Main Authors:	Urbain, Charline, Bourguignon, Mathieu, Op de Beeck, Marc, Schmitz, Rémy, Galer, Sophie, Wens, Vincent, Marty, Brice, De Tiège, Xavier, Van Bogaert, Patrick, Peigneux, Philippe
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Public Library of Science 2013
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3729701/

id	pubmed-3729701
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-37297012013-08-09 MEG Correlates of Learning Novel Objects Properties in Children Urbain, Charline Bourguignon, Mathieu Op de Beeck, Marc Schmitz, Rémy Galer, Sophie Wens, Vincent Marty, Brice De Tiège, Xavier Van Bogaert, Patrick Peigneux, Philippe Research Article Learning the functional properties of objects is a core mechanism in the development of conceptual, cognitive and linguistic knowledge in children. The cerebral processes underlying these learning mechanisms remain unclear in adults and unexplored in children. Here, we investigated the neurophysiological patterns underpinning the learning of functions for novel objects in 10-year-old healthy children. Event-related fields (ERFs) were recorded using magnetoencephalography (MEG) during a picture-definition task. Two MEG sessions were administered, separated by a behavioral verbal learning session during which children learned short definitions about the “magical” function of 50 unknown non-objects. Additionally, 50 familiar real objects and 50 other unknown non-objects for which no functions were taught were presented at both MEG sessions. Children learned at least 75% of the 50 proposed definitions in less than one hour, illustrating children's powerful ability to rapidly map new functional meanings to novel objects. Pre- and post-learning ERFs differences were analyzed first in sensor then in source space. Results in sensor space disclosed a learning-dependent modulation of ERFs for newly learned non-objects, developing 500–800 msec after stimulus onset. Analyses in the source space windowed over this late temporal component of interest disclosed underlying activity in right parietal, bilateral orbito-frontal and right temporal regions. Altogether, our results suggest that learning-related evolution in late ERF components over those regions may support the challenging task of rapidly creating new semantic representations supporting the processing of the meaning and functions of novel objects in children. Public Library of Science 2013-07-31 /pmc/articles/PMC3729701/ /pubmed/23936082 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069696 Text en © 2013 Urbain et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Urbain, Charline Bourguignon, Mathieu Op de Beeck, Marc Schmitz, Rémy Galer, Sophie Wens, Vincent Marty, Brice De Tiège, Xavier Van Bogaert, Patrick Peigneux, Philippe
spellingShingle	Urbain, Charline Bourguignon, Mathieu Op de Beeck, Marc Schmitz, Rémy Galer, Sophie Wens, Vincent Marty, Brice De Tiège, Xavier Van Bogaert, Patrick Peigneux, Philippe MEG Correlates of Learning Novel Objects Properties in Children
author_facet	Urbain, Charline Bourguignon, Mathieu Op de Beeck, Marc Schmitz, Rémy Galer, Sophie Wens, Vincent Marty, Brice De Tiège, Xavier Van Bogaert, Patrick Peigneux, Philippe
author_sort	Urbain, Charline
title	MEG Correlates of Learning Novel Objects Properties in Children
title_short	MEG Correlates of Learning Novel Objects Properties in Children
title_full	MEG Correlates of Learning Novel Objects Properties in Children
title_fullStr	MEG Correlates of Learning Novel Objects Properties in Children
title_full_unstemmed	MEG Correlates of Learning Novel Objects Properties in Children
title_sort	meg correlates of learning novel objects properties in children
description	Learning the functional properties of objects is a core mechanism in the development of conceptual, cognitive and linguistic knowledge in children. The cerebral processes underlying these learning mechanisms remain unclear in adults and unexplored in children. Here, we investigated the neurophysiological patterns underpinning the learning of functions for novel objects in 10-year-old healthy children. Event-related fields (ERFs) were recorded using magnetoencephalography (MEG) during a picture-definition task. Two MEG sessions were administered, separated by a behavioral verbal learning session during which children learned short definitions about the “magical” function of 50 unknown non-objects. Additionally, 50 familiar real objects and 50 other unknown non-objects for which no functions were taught were presented at both MEG sessions. Children learned at least 75% of the 50 proposed definitions in less than one hour, illustrating children's powerful ability to rapidly map new functional meanings to novel objects. Pre- and post-learning ERFs differences were analyzed first in sensor then in source space. Results in sensor space disclosed a learning-dependent modulation of ERFs for newly learned non-objects, developing 500–800 msec after stimulus onset. Analyses in the source space windowed over this late temporal component of interest disclosed underlying activity in right parietal, bilateral orbito-frontal and right temporal regions. Altogether, our results suggest that learning-related evolution in late ERF components over those regions may support the challenging task of rapidly creating new semantic representations supporting the processing of the meaning and functions of novel objects in children.
publisher	Public Library of Science
publishDate	2013
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3729701/
_version_	1611999610292666368

MEG Correlates of Learning Novel Objects Properties in Children

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