What is Learning

Week 1. What is learning?
Dr. Terrence Sejnowski
Fox, M. D., Snyder, A. Z., Vincent, J. L., Corbetta, M., Van Essen, D. C., and Raichle, M. E. (!!"#. $he h%&an brain is
intrinsically or'ani(ed into dyna&ic, anticorrelated )%nctional net*or+s. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
,!, -./01-./2
Fi'. ,. 3ntrinsic correlations bet*een a seed re'ion in the 4CC and all other 5oxels in the brain )or a sin'le s%b6ect d%rin'
restin' )ixation. $he s7atial distrib%tion o) correlation coe))icients sho*s both correlations (7ositi5e 5al%es# and
anticorrelations (ne'ati5e 5al%es#, thresholded at R 8 !.0. $he ti&e co%rse )or a sin'le r%n is sho*n )or the seed re'ion
(4CC, yello*#, a re'ion 7ositi5ely correlated *ith this seed re'ion in the M4F (oran'e#, and a re'ion ne'ati5ely correlated
*ith the seed re'ion in the 34S (bl%e#.
9%an' :an' et al. Slee7 7ro&otes branch1s7eci)ic )or&ation o) dendritic s7ines a)ter learnin', Science 0;;, ,,/0
(!,;#

Fi'. ,. Motor learnin' ind%ces branch1s7eci)ic s7ine )or&ation. $ranscranial t*o 7hoton i&a'in' in the
7ri&ary &otor cortex o) a*a+e, head restrained &ice be)ore and a)ter rotarod &otor trainin'. An exa&7le o)
an a7ical t%)t branch *ith hi'h s7ine )or&ation ; ho%rs a)ter trainin'. Filled arro*heads indicate ne*ly
)or&ed dendritic s7ines and o7en ones indicate eli&inated s7ines o5er a ;1ho%r inter5al. Asteris+s indicate
dendritic )ilo7odia.
A . <& dia&eter carbon )ila&ent (r%nnin' )ro& botto& le)t
to to7 ri'ht# co&7ared to a h%&an hair, C)aser haarr7
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e=C)aser8haarr7.67'
$he Chandos 7ortrait o) @illia&
Sha+es7eare, tho%'ht to be by 7ainter John
$aylor,
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eare
Ather Rele5ant Readin's
• Michael D. Fox and Michael 9reici%s, Clinical a77lications o)
restin' state )%nctional connecti5ity , Front. Syst. Be%rosci., ,.
J%ne !,!
• Fox, M. D., Corbetta, M., Snyder, A. Z., Vincent, J. L., and
Raichle, M. E. (!!.a#. S7ontaneo%s ne%ronal acti5ity
distin'%ishes h%&an dorsal and 5entral attention syste&s. Proc.
Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. ,!0, ,!!;.C,!!",.