FriSem - Ian Ballard, Psychology Department, Stanford University

Specialized Neural Circuits Supporting Adaptive Learning

Abstract: Humans and other animals employ diverse strategies for learning to solve different kinds of problems. I will present data from two experiments that are designed to elicit different learning strategies. These different strategies manifest in behavior and in turn involve different neural systems that converge on the striatum. The first experiment involves reasoning about abstract rules, and involves a corticostriatal circuit centered on rule representations in the inferior frontal sulcus. The second involves learning about conjunctions, and involves a hippocampal-striatal circuit that maintains pattern separated representations of conjunctions.