Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32018038›Full record

ReviewNeuroscience and biobehavioral reviews2020

How does the brain learn environmental structure? Ten core principles for understanding the neurocognitive mechanisms of statistical learning.

Christopher M Conway

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 112 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
112citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

112 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. What neurological diseases tell us about procedural perceptual-motor learning? A systematic review of the literature.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2023
    Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Modality-general sensitivity of pupil responses to regularity violations.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026
    Article
  12. Unsupervised nonmotor learning in the human cerebellum.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
  13. Article
  14. Repetitions trigger illusory awareness in implicit statistical learning.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

52 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Christopher M ConwayCenter for Childhood Deafness, Language, and Learning, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, NE, United States. Electronic address: christopher.conway@boystown.org.

Funding

Acquiring language with a cochlear implant: The role of sequential learningR01DC012037 · NIDCD · GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY · PI CONWAY, CHRISTOPHER · 2012 to 2016
$1.8M
NIDCD NIH HHS R01 DC012037
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Despite a growing body of research devoted to the study of how humans encode environmental patterns, there is still no clear consensus about the nature of the neurocognitive mechanisms underpinning statistical learning nor what factors constrain or promote its emergence across individuals, species, and learning situations. Based on a review of research examining the roles of input modality and domain, input structure and complexity, attention, neuroanatomical bases, ontogeny, and phylogeny, ten core principles are proposed. Specifically, there exist two sets of neurocognitive mechanisms underlying statistical learning. First, a "suite" of associative-based, automatic, modality-specific learning mechanisms are mediated by the general principle of cortical plasticity, which results in improved processing and perceptual facilitation of encountered stimuli. Second, an attention-dependent system, mediated by the prefrontal cortex and related attentional and working memory networks, can modulate or gate learning and is necessary in order to learn nonadjacent dependencies and to integrate global patterns across time. This theoretical framework helps clarify conflicting research findings and provides the basis for future empirical and theoretical endeavors.

Indexed as

Probability LearningAssociation LearningAttentionHumansMemory, Short-TermNerve NetNeuronal PlasticityPrefrontal CortexSerial LearningArtificial grammar learningImplicit learningSequential learningStatistical learning

Identifiers

PMID32018038
PMCPMC7211144

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.