# data[].attributes.headline
MORE DETAIL ON WHAT VISUAL PROCESSING IS

# data[].attributes.subject
MORE DETAIL ON WHAT VISUAL PROCESSING IS

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.entities[].name
National Center for Learning Disabilities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
The National Center for Learning Disabilities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What does visual processing mean for students with learning disabilities? What are some of the aspects of visual processing? Dr. Horowitz will discuss these topics, and more, in this Ask the Expert video. To learn more about visual processing disorder, please visit http://bit.ly/R1WHQv

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.entities[].name
National Center for Learning Disabilities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.entities[].name
Powerful Method for Teaching Reading to Classroom of Students

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Strategy for Teaching Students with Processing Disorders How to Read

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn more about Reading Horizons at: http://www.readinghorizons.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Review Article | Published:

Yuka Sasaki

Yuka Sasaki is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and works in the Athinoula A. Martinos Center of Neuroscience, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She is also a Visiting Researcher at the ATR Institute in Kyoto, Japan. She was awarded a Ph.D. from Waseda University, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, for research on the latency of rapid eye movement sleep and circadian rhythms. She has also conducted research on perceptual learning and perceptual organization using brain imaging techniques. Recently she has conducted research on the role of sleep in perceptual learning using advanced brain imaging techniques, taking advantage of the rare combination of her research experiences in sleep, perceptual learning and brain imaging.

, Jose E. Nanez

José E. Náñez is President's Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University, USA. He was awarded a Ph.D. for his research on psychophysics from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minnesota, USA. Náñez is also director of the Cognitive and Vision Science Laboratory at Arizona State University. His original research focused on infant visual psychophysics. His current research explores the relationship between cognitive processes and language in the bilingual brain. He has contributed to the community as President of the Arizona Association of Chicanos for Higher Education (AACHE).

& Takeo Watanabe

Takeo Watanabe is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Program of Neuroscience and Director of the Vision Sciences Laboratory at Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He is also Visiting Researcher at the ATR Institute in Kyoto, Japan. After gaining a Ph.D. for research on surface representation at the University of Tokyo, Japan, he pursued postdoctoral training under Professor Patrick Cavanagh at Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He has conducted research on surface representation, motion perception and attention by means of psychophysics and brain imaging. For the past 10 years, most of his research has been related to perceptual learning.

This article has been updated

Abstract

Visual perceptual learning (VPL) is defined as a long-term improvement in performance on a visual task. In recent years, the idea that conscious effort is necessary for VPL to occur has been challenged by research suggesting the involvement of more implicit processing mechanisms, such as reinforcement-driven processing and consolidation. In addition, we have learnt much about the neural substrates of VPL and it has become evident that changes in visual areas and regions beyond the visual cortex can take place during VPL.

Key points

Visual perceptual learning (VPL) is defined as performance enhancement on a visual task as a result of visual experience and has been regarded as a manifestation of brain plasticity.

Studies of VPL mechanisms should distinguish the process that leads to learning from the changes resulting from learning.

It was formerly believed that conscious effort, such as deliberately paying attention, is necessary for the occurrence of VPL; however, this has recently been challenged by studies indicating that the involvement of more implicit processing, such as reinforcement-driven processing and consolidation processing, is crucial for VPL to occur.

VPL occurs as a result of the participant either focusing attention on a given task and/or relevant visual feature or through mere exposure to a feature that is irrelevant to a given task. These are known as task-relevant learning and task-irrelevant learning, respectively.

Recent results suggest that attention enhances signals from task-relevant features and suppresses signals from task-irrelevant features, resulting in task-relevant learning. Conversely, reinforcement signals driven by rewards may enhance signals from task-relevant and task-irrelevant features.

Some results suggest that the visual cortex changes in association with VPL, with or without the influence of top-down processing from higher cortical levels. However, other findings indicate that at least some types of VPL are associated with changes in the areas of the cortex responsible for decision making or in the connectivity between the visual and decision-making cortices, without changes in the visual cortex itself.

Whether changes associated with perceptual learning mainly occur within or beyond the visual cortex may depend on conditions including the task, the relevant feature and the irrelevant feature. The brain probably changes the targeted region in order to achieve the greatest improvement possible on the perceptual task.

Access options Access options

Subscribe to Journal

Get full journal access for 1 year

$265.00

only $22.08 per issue

All prices are NET prices.
VAT will be added later in the checkout.

Rent or Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

All prices are NET prices.

Additional access options:

References

1. 14.
, , & Practising orientation identification improves orientation coding in V1 neurons. Nature 412, 549-553 (2001). Changes were observed in tuning properties in monkey V1 neurons tuned to orientations crucial for VPL of an orientation-discrimination task.

2. 28.
et al. Greater plasticity in lower-level than higher-level visual motion processing in a passive perceptual learning task. Nature Neurosci. 5, 1003-1009 (2002). This study indicates that attention to a visual feature is not necessary in order to learn the feature.

3. 31.
, & Rewards evoke learning of unconsciously processed visual stimuli in adult humans. Neuron 61, 700-707 (2009) This study shows that a stimulus that was below the threshold for perception was learnt when the subject was deprived of food or water and then given water as a reward..

4. 50.
Memory from A to Z. Keywords, Concepts and Beyond (Oxford Univ. Press, 2002).

5. 72.
Rechtschaffen, A. & (eds). Manual of Standardized Terminology, Techniques, and Scoring System for Sleep Stages of Human Subjects (US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Bethesda, Maryland, 1968).

6. 79.
Yotsumoto, Y. et al. Location-specific cortical activation changes during sleep after training for perceptual learning. Curr. Biol. 19, 1278-1282 (2009). Signal enhancement was observed specifically in the region of V1 corresponding to the trained location during sleep after training on a TDT, and was highly correlated with performance enhancement after sleep.

7. 104.
et al. Complete transfer of perceptual learning across retinal locations enabled by double training. Curr. Biol. 18, 1922-1926 (2008). Training to discriminate a particular feature at one location concurrently with or followed by additional training with another feature at a second location resulted in a complete transfer of the improved discrimination of the first feature to the second location. The results suggest that at least some types of VPL are associated with changes in middle- or higher-level stages of visual processing.

8. 121.
Gilestro, G. F. , & Widespread changes in synaptic markers as a function of sleep and wakefulness in Drosophila. Science 324, 109-112 (2009).

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank G. Deangelis, B. Dosher, Z.-L. Lu and K. Shibata for valuable comments on an early draft of the paper and N. Ito for technical assistance. This study is supported by grants from the Sleep Research Society Foundation, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, ERATO Shimojo Implicit Brain Project (Japan Science Technology), the National Centre for Research Resources (P41RR14075) the Mind Institute and the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biological Imaging to Y.S. and by grants from the US National Institutes of Health (R01 EY015980-04A2, R01 EY019466, R01 AG031941, R21 EY018925, R21 EY017737) and the National Science Foundation (BCS-0549,036) to T.W.

Author information

Affiliations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Takeo Watanabe.

Glossary

Implicit processing

Processing that occurs without a subject's awareness.

Vernier acuity

The ability to detect an offset from collinearity in a pair or triad of abutting lines or dots.

Gabor patches

The two-dimensional image formed by multiplying a sine wave and a Gaussian function. Gabor patches are widely used in vision research because they have a well-defined spatial frequency, orientation and location.

Blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal

The signal based on the relative concentration of contrast deoxygenated and oxygenated blood measured by functional MRI. The BOLD signal is thought to reflect some significant aspects of neural activity.

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep

The period of sleep characterized by a relatively low-voltage, mixed-frequency electroencephalogram in conjunction with episodic rapid eye movements and low-amplitude electromyogram. Breathing and heart rates are irregular during REM sleep, which is also when vivid dreaming is thought to occur.

Non-REM (NREM) sleep

The period of sleep that is not classified as REM sleep. Slow-wave sleep (SWS) is a component of deeper NREM sleep in humans. However, SWS is synonymous with NREM sleep in animals.

To obtain permission to re-use content from this article visit RightsLink.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Advances in visual perceptual learning and plasticity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Review Article | Published: Yuka Sasaki Yuka Sasaki is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and works in the Athinoula A. Martinos Center of Neuroscience, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She is also a Visiting Researcher at the ATR Institute in Kyoto, Japan.

# data[].attributes.body
Struggles with accurately identifying information from pictures, charts, graphs and maps.

Remembering directions to a location

Accommodations:

Color code important information

Proof reading buddy for writing

outline to simplify and organize ideas

# data[].attributes.body
Difficult time organizing and solving in math

Struggles with copying from the board or books

Hard time writing neatly

Accommodations:

Use rulers as a guide to read

Have a tape recorder to supplement note-taking

Proof reading buddy for notes and essays

# data[].attributes.body
Students get distracted easily

Struggle with judging distances

Mixes up letter and numbers

Ex: b d. p 9, 6 9, 2 5

Accommmodations:

Enlarged print

Read aloud

break into steps

point out important information

# data[].attributes.headline
Affects how the brain perceieves and processes what the eyes see.

# data[].attributes.subject
Affects how the brain perceieves and processes what the eyes see.