Evoking plasticity through sensory stimulation: Implications for learning and rehabilitation

Abstract

The gold standard for improving sensory, motor and or cognitive abilities is longterm training and practicing. Recent work, however, suggests that intensive training may not be necessary. Improved performance can be effectively acquired by a complementary approach in which the learning occurs in response to mere exposure to repetitive sensory stimulation. Such training-independent sensory learning (TISL), which has been intensively studied in the somatosensory system, induces in humans lasting changes in perception and neural processing, without any explicit task training. It has been suggested that the effectiveness of this form of learning stems from the fact that the stimulation protocols used are optimized to alter synaptic transmission and efficacy. TISL provides novel ways to investigate in humans the relation between learning processes and underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms, and to explore alternative strategies for intervention and therapy.