统计学习的认知机制及其神经基础

The Cognitive Mechanism and Neural Bases of Statistical Learning

本文主要探讨了人类统计学习研究的起源和发展、影响统计学习的因素及统计学习的脑神经基础.人类统计学习的研究起源于20世纪90年代关于婴儿听觉语音流切分的实验,之后,大量研究又考察了对听觉非语言信息及视觉图形的统计学习.这些研究表明,统计学习是一种具有一般性的、涉及发现和提取规则的学习类型,但是不同范畴的统计学习又受到与特定范畴有关因素的制约.例如,语言统计学习受到语言因素的制约,而非语言统计学习与呈现刺激的特征以及呈现的通道有关.近些年,研究者开始采用事件相关电位(event-related potentials,ERPs)技术考察统计学习的时间进程,以及采用功能核磁共振成像(functional magnetic resonance imaging,fMRI)技术考察统计学习的脑激活模式.ERPs研究较一致地发现400 ms左右产生的负波与统计信息的提取有关,而脑成像研究结果表明,与统计学习相关的脑区有大脑左侧颞上回(superiortemporal gyrus)、右侧纹状体(right striatum)和右侧颞叶内侧记忆系统(right medial temporal memory system).

In this review, we mainly discuss the origin and the development of statistical learning research, as well as constraints and brain neural bases of statistical learning. Researches of statistical learning originated from the studies on speech segmentation in human infants since 1990＇s. From then on, lots of studies have explored statistical learning on both non-linguistic continuous sound streams and visual shape sequences. Evidence from these researches suggest that statistical learning is involved in discovering and extracting regularities, and it is domain-general. However, statistical learning in different domains is constrained by domain-related factors. For example, statistical learning in language （s） is constrained by language-specific factors; while non-linguistic statistical learning is constrained by stimulus characteristics and presentation modality. In recent years, several studies have examined the temporal course of statistical learning by employing event-related potentials （ERPs） technique and investigated its neural substrates by using functional magnetic resonance imaging （fMRI） technique. ERPs studies consistently found that a negative ERP component at around 400 ms was related with the extraction of regularities, and findings of fMRI studies suggested that statistical learning mainly involved left superior temporal gyrus, right striatum and right medial temporal memory system.