dc.contributor.author | Margolles, Pedro | |
dc.contributor.author | Elosegi, Patxi | |
dc.contributor.author | Mei, Ning | |
dc.contributor.author | Soto, David | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2024-08-26T11:31:13Z | |
dc.date.available | 2024-08-26T11:31:13Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2024 | |
dc.identifier.citation | Margolles, P., Elosegi, P., Mei, N., & Soto, D. (2024). Unconscious manipulation of conceptual representations with decoded neurofeedback impacts search behavior. Journal of Neuroscience, 44(2):e1235232023. Doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1235-23.2023 | es_ES |
dc.identifier.citation | Journal of Neuroscience | |
dc.identifier.issn | 0270-6474 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10810/69322 | |
dc.description | Published on 10 January 2024 | es_ES |
dc.description.abstract | The necessity of conscious awareness in human learning has been a long-standing topic in psychology and neuroscience. Previous research on non-conscious associative learning is limited by the low signal-to-noise ratio of the subliminal stimulus, and the evidence remains controversial, including failures to replicate. Using functional MRI decoded neurofeedback, we guided participants from both sexes to generate neural patterns akin to those observed when visually perceiving real-world entities (e.g., dogs). Importantly, participants remained unaware of the actual content represented by these patterns. We utilized an associative DecNef approach to imbue perceptual meaning (e.g., dogs) into Japanese hiragana characters that held no inherent meaning for our participants, bypassing a conscious link between the characters and the dogs concept. Despite their lack of awareness regarding the neurofeedback objective, participants successfully learned to activate the target perceptual representations in the bilateral fusiform. The behavioral significance of our training was evaluated in a visual search task. DecNef and control participants searched for dogs or scissors targets that were pre-cued by the hiragana used during DecNef training or by a control hiragana. The DecNef hiragana did not prime search for its associated target but, strikingly, participants were impaired at searching for the targeted perceptual category. Hence, conscious awareness may function to support higher-order associative learning. Meanwhile, lower-level forms of re-learning, modification, or plasticity in existing neural representations can occur unconsciously, with behavioral consequences outside the original training context. The work also provides an account of DecNef effects in terms of neural representational drift. | es_ES |
dc.description.sponsorship | P.M. acknowledges support from an Formación de Personal Investigador (FPI) Grant from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (ref. BES-2017-080796). P.E. acknowledges support from the Basque Government Predoctoral Grant. D.S. acknowledges support from the Basque Government through the Basque Excellence Research Centers (BERC) 2022–2025 program, from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the “Severo Ochoa” Programme for Centres/Units of Excellence (CEX2020-001010-S), and also from project grants PID2019-105494GB-I00. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. | es_ES |
dc.language.iso | spa | es_ES |
dc.publisher | Jneurosci | es_ES |
dc.relation | info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/BES-2017-080796 | es_ES |
dc.relation | info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/GV/BERC2022-2025 | es_ES |
dc.relation | info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/CEX2020-001010-S | es_ES |
dc.relation | info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/PID2019-105494GB-I00 | es_ES |
dc.rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess | es_ES |
dc.subject | associative learning | es_ES |
dc.subject | consciousness | es_ES |
dc.subject | decoded neurofeedback | es_ES |
dc.subject | representational drift | es_ES |
dc.title | Unconscious Manipulation of Conceptual Representations with Decoded Neurofeedback Impacts Search Behavior | es_ES |
dc.type | info:eu-repo/semantics/article | es_ES |
dc.rights.holder | Copyright © 2024 the authors | es_ES |
dc.relation.publisherversion | https://www.jneurosci.org/ | es_ES |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1235-23.2023 | |