ArticleNature communications2019
Ventral midbrain stimulation induces perceptual learning and cortical plasticity in primates.
Article in Nature communications, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Perceptual training selectively strengthens top-down signaling to sensory cortex.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Motivational state determines error-sensitive learning modes in visual perceptual learning.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2026Article
- Refining mechanistic models of hallucinations for enhanced translatability.Translational psychiatry · 2025Review
- MEBRAINS 1.0: A new population-based macaque atlas.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Trait food craving predicts functional connectivity between dopaminergic midbrain and the fusiform food area during eating imagery.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Limited Pairings of Electrical Micro-stimulation of the Ventral Tegmental Area and a Visual Stimulus Enhance Visual Cortical Responses.Journal of cognitive neuroscience · 2022Article
- A reference tissue forward model for improved PET accuracy using within-scan displacement studies.Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism · 2022Article
- The current status and trend of the functional magnetic resonance combined with stimulation in animals.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Article
- Visual perceptual learning of a primitive feature in human V1/V2 as a result of unconscious processing, revealed by decoded functional MRI neurofeedback (DecNef).Journal of vision · 2021Article
- Combining brain perturbation and neuroimaging in non-human primates.NeuroImage · 2021Review
- Divergent Whole Brain Projections from the Ventral Midbrain in Macaques.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2021Article
- Frequency- and State-Dependent Network Effects of Electrical Stimulation Targeting the Ventral Tegmental Area in Macaques.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Practice improves perception and enhances neural representations of trained visual stimuli, a phenomenon known as visual perceptual learning (VPL). While attention to task-relevant stimuli plays an important role in such learning, Pavlovian stimulus-reinforcer associations are sufficient to drive VPL, even subconsciously. It has been proposed that reinforcement facilitates perceptual learning through the activation of neuromodulatory centers, but this has not been directly confirmed in primates. Here, we paired task-irrelevant visual stimuli with microstimulation of a dopaminergic center, the ventral tegmental area (VTA), in macaques. Pairing VTA microstimulation with a task-irrelevant visual stimulus increased fMRI activity and improved classification of fMRI activity patterns selectively for the microstimulation-paired stimulus. Moreover, pairing VTA microstimulation with a task-irrelevant visual stimulus improved the subject's capacity to discriminate that stimulus. This is the first causal demonstration of the role of neuromodulatory centers in VPL in primates.
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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.