ArticlePloS one2012
Learning to learn: theta oscillations predict new learning, which enhances related learning and neurogenesis.
Article in PloS one, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Neural oscillation in bipolar disorder: a systematic review of resting-state electroencephalography studies.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2024Pooled it
- Is the Cognitive Ability of Fawn-Footed Mosaic-Tailed Rat Melomys cervinipes Offspring Related to Mothers' Care or Cognitive Abilities?Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology · 2026Article
- High-density EEG study in patients with schizophrenia treated with cariprazine.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Modulated theta band frequency with binaural beat stimulation correlates with improved cognitive scores in Alzheimer's patients.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2025Article
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- Article
- Altered Cortical Functional Networks in Patients With Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder: A Resting-State Electroencephalographic Study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Article
- Mammillothalamic Disconnection Alters Hippocampocortical Oscillatory Activity and Microstructure: Implications for Diencephalic Amnesia.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2019Article
- Stroke Accelerates and Uncouples Intrinsic and Synaptic Excitability Maturation of Mouse Hippocampal DCXThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2019Article
- Developmental Changes in Hippocampal CA1 Single Neuron Firing and Theta Activity during Associative Learning.PloS one · 2016Article
- Article
- Multivariate genetic determinants of EEG oscillations in schizophrenia and psychotic bipolar disorder from the BSNIP study.Translational psychiatry · 2015Article
- Phase matters: responding to and learning about peripheral stimuli depends on hippocampal θ phase at stimulus onset.Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) · 2015Article
- From Cerebellar Activation and Connectivity to Cognition: A Review of the Quadrato Motor Training.BioMed research international · 2015Review
- Cognitive Collaborations: Bidirectional Functional Connectivity Between the Cerebellum and the Hippocampus.Frontiers in systems neuroscience · 2015Review
- Age-related impairments on one hippocampal-dependent task predict impairments on a subsequent hippocampal-dependent task.Behavioral neuroscience · 2014Article
- Mental and Physical (MAP) Training: a neurogenesis-inspired intervention that enhances health in humans.Neurobiology of learning and memory · 2014Review
- Species-specific differences in the medial prefrontal projections to the pons between rat and rabbit.The Journal of comparative neurology · 2014Article
- Effects of hippocampal state-contingent trial presentation on hippocampus-dependent nonspatial classical conditioning and extinction.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2014Article
- Consequences of cancer treatments on adult hippocampal neurogenesis: implications for cognitive function and depressive symptoms.Neuro-oncology · 2014Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Animals in the natural world continuously encounter learning experiences of varying degrees of novelty. New neurons in the hippocampus are especially responsive to learning associations between novel events and more cells survive if a novel and challenging task is learned. One might wonder whether new neurons would be rescued from death upon each new learning experience or whether there is an internal control system that limits the number of cells that are retained as a function of learning. In this experiment, it was hypothesized that learning a task that was similar in content to one already learned previously would not increase cell survival. We further hypothesized that in situations in which the cells are rescued hippocampal theta oscillations (3-12 Hz) would be involved and perhaps necessary for increasing cell survival. Both hypotheses were disproved. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained on two similar hippocampus-dependent tasks, trace and very-long delay eyeblink conditioning, while recording hippocampal local-field potentials. Cells that were generated after training on the first task were labeled with bromodeoxyuridine and quantified after training on both tasks had ceased. Spontaneous theta activity predicted performance on the first task and the conditioned stimulus induced a theta-band response early in learning the first task. As expected, performance on the first task correlated with performance on the second task. However, theta activity did not increase during training on the second task, even though more cells were present in animals that had learned. Therefore, as long as learning occurs, relatively small changes in the environment are sufficient to increase the number of surviving neurons in the adult hippocampus and they can do so in the absence of an increase in theta activity. In conclusion, these data argue against an upper limit on the number of neurons that can be rescued from death by learning.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.