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This study has examined the effectiveness of a neuropsychologically based learning programme aimed at enhancing the seJt:.actualisation of learners. The aim of the programme is to create awareness of one's unique purpose in life. The need for motivation, commitment and determination must he realised. llolistic thinking is an important concept throughout the programme, in that it is aimed at unlocking latent potential through the encouragement of lateral thinking. The awareness of underlying potential enhances the realisation of each Ieamer's uniqueness and individual contributions to society, and facilitates awareness of the need to accept responsibility for one's own future. 'Ibis failure to fully utilise the potential of the brain has implications for education. A teacher who is made aware ofthe huge untapped storage ofhuman brain potential could be trained to disclose a learner's unused abilities, through adjusted education, thus infonning learners of the intrinsic abilities oftheir brains. / Educational studies / M.Ed.

This study has examined the effectiveness of a neuropsychologically based learning programme aimed at enhancing the seJt:.actualisation of learners. The aim of the programme is to create awareness of one's unique purpose in life. The need for motivation, commitment and determination must he realised. llolistic thinking is an important concept throughout the programme, in that it is aimed at unlocking latent potential through the encouragement of lateral thinking. The awareness of underlying potential enhances the realisation of each Ieamer's uniqueness and individual contributions to society, and facilitates awareness of the need to accept responsibility for one's own future. 'Ibis failure to fully utilise the potential of the brain has implications for education. A teacher who is made aware ofthe huge untapped storage ofhuman brain potential could be trained to disclose a learner's unused abilities, through adjusted education, thus infonning learners of the intrinsic abilities oftheir brains. / Educational studies / M.Ed.

In order to assess flexibility in acquiring and using conflicting response rules, rats with selective lesions of the NBM or sham-lesion controls were subjected to serial reversal training in a simple operant discrimination paradigm. The NBM lesion group did not differ from the control group in acquisition of the original rules; the NBM lesion group required more time to master the changes in rules in the first reversal, but not in subsequent reversals.

Reinforcement learning occurs when organisms adapt the propensities of given behaviours on the basis of associations with reward and punishment. Currently, reinforcement learning models have been validated in minimalist environments in which only 1-2 environmental stimuli are present as possible predictors of reward. The exception to this is two studies in which the responses of the dopamine system to configurations of multiple stimuli were investigated, however, in both cases the stimuli were presented simultaneously rather than in a sequence. Therefore, we set out to understand how current models of reinforcement learning would respond under more complex conditions in which sequences of events are predictors of reward. In the two experimental chapters of this thesis, we attempted to understand whether midbrain dopaminergic neurons would respond to occasion setters (Chapter 3), and to the overexpectation effect (Chapter 4). In addition, we ran simulations of the behavioural paradigms using temporal difference models of reinforcement learning (Chapter 2) and compared the predictions of the model with the behavioural and neurophysiological data. In Chapter 3, by performing single-neuron recording from VTA and SNpc dopaminergic cells, we demonstrated that our population of neurons were most responsive to the latest predictor of reward, the conditioned stimulus (CS) and not the earliest, the occasion setter (the OS). This is in stark contrast with the predictions of the model (Chapter 2), where the greatest response is seen at the OS onset. We also showed at a neural level that there was only a weak enhancement of the response to the discriminative stimulus (SD) when this was preceded by the OS. On the other hand, at a behavioural level, bar pressing was greatest when the SD was preceded by the OS, demonstrating that rats could use the information provided by the OS, but that dopamine was not controlling the conditioned response. In Chapter 4, our population of dopaminergic neurons showed that they would preferentially respond to only one of the two conditioned stimuli (CSA, CSB) in the overexpectation paradigm. The predictions of the model (Chapter 2) suggested that when the two stimuli would be presented in compound, there would be an inhibitory response if the reward magnitude was kept constant and an excitatory response if the reward magnitude was doubled. The lack of neural firing to one of the two conditioned stimuli, however, does not make for easy interpretation of the data. Perhaps, one of the conditioned stimuli acted as if it were overshadowing the other, resulting in no response to the second CS. Interestingly, at a behavioural level, we did not see increased licking frequency to the compound stimuli presentation, a result that is somewhat at odds with the previous literature. Overall, the results of our experimental chapters suggest that the role that midbrain dopaminergic neurons play in reinforcement learning is more complex than that envisaged by previous investigations.

Doctorat en Sciences Psychologiques et de l'éducation / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This study sought to determine whether the DG, CA3, and CA1 regions contain uniformly excitable populations and test the hypothesis that rapid addition of new, more excitable, granule cells in prepubescence results in a low activation probability (P1) in the DG. The immediate-early gene Homer1a was used as a neural activity marker to quantify activation in juvenile (P28) and adult (~5 mo) rats during track running. The main finding was that P1 in juveniles was substantially lower not only the DG, but also CA3 and CA1. The P1 for a DG granule cell was close to 0 in juveniles, versus 0.58 in adults. The low P1 in juveniles indicates that sparse, but non-overlapping, subpopulations participate in encoding events. Since sparse, orthogonal coding enhances a network’s ability to decorrelate input patterns (Marr, 1971; McNaughton & Morris, 1987), the findings suggest that juveniles likely possess greatly enhanced pattern separation ability. / ix, 51 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm

It was hypothesized that 192 IgG-saporin lesions of the basal forebrain cholinergic system (BFCS) would disrupt differential reinforcement of low rate (DRL) learning in an uncued DRL task, but would not impair acquisition and performance in the cued version of the task. Results suggest that BFCS lesions impair vigilance to the external cues despite continued practice in the cued DRL, whereas continuous attention to internally produced cues recovers with extended practice in the uncued DRL.

Learning and memory consolidation processes in children and adults: a<p>neurophysiological and neuropsychological investigation.<p><p>Sleep is a complex and active state of the brain, associated with essential functional changes<p>[1]. Accumulated evidence in the adult population indicates that sleep participates in the<p>consolidation of declarative (i.e. memory for facts and episodes) and procedural (i.e. skills<p>and habits) memory, allowing novel information to be integrated for the long term in cerebral<p>networks [2]. Whether sleep supports memory consolidation in children likewise and to the<p>same extent than in adults remains disputed. In this framework, I have developed<p>experiments aimed at investigating sleep-dependent consolidation processes both in children<p>and adults, using behavioral and neurophysiological techniques (magneto-encephalography<p>[MEG]; electro-encephalography [EEG]; functional magnetic resonance imaging [fMRI]). To<p>sum up, researches conducted during my PhD thesis have contributed to start unraveling<p>neurophysiological mechanisms participating in sleep-dependent consolidation processes.<p>On the one hand, I report that despite a lack of detectable behavioral differences, posttraining<p>sleep plays a role in reshaping the cerebral networks subtending implicit motor<p>sequence learning in adults [3]. I also showed using a motor adaptation task [4] that sleep<p>contributes to the consolidation of procedural memory in children [5]. On the other hand, I<p>have evidenced neuromagnetic correlates of learning novel semantic representations in<p>children [6-7], and is currently finalizing the analysis of the effect of a post-training nap on the<p>consolidation of these representations. Finally, I showed in epileptic children that interictal<p>epileptic discharges (IED) during sleep impairs declarative memory consolidation processes<p>[8-9], and that this phenomenon is reversible upon pharmacological treatment suppressing<p>IED. Altogether, these findings advocate the need to explore further memory consolidation<p>and its neurophysiological basis in children, both healthy and suffering from various brain<p>pathologies [10].<p>[1] Urbain C. Peigneux, P. & Schmitz R. Sleep and the Brain. (to appear). In The Oxford Handbook of<p>Sleep and Sleep Disorders. C. M. Morin and C. A. Espie (Eds.). Oxford University Press, Oxford, NY.<p>[2] Peigneux P. Schmitz R. & Urbain C. Sleep and Forgetting. In Forgetting. S. Della Sala (Ed.).<p>Psychology Press, Hove, UK. 2010. (pp. 165-184).<p>[3] Urbain C. Schmitz R. Schmidt C. Cleeremans A. Van Bogaert P. Maquet P. and Peigneux P.<p>(submitted). Neuroanatomical Sleep-Dependent Processing in the Probabilistic Serial Reaction Time<p>Task.<p>[4] Huber, R. Ghilardi, M.F. Massimini, M. And Tononi, G. Local sleep and learning. Nature, 2004,<p>430, 78-84.<p>[5] Urbain C. Houyoux E. Albouy G. Peigneux P. (in preparation). Sleep-dependent consolidation of<p>procedural learning in children.<p>[6] Urbain C. Schmitz R. Op De Beeck M. Bourguignon M. Galer S. X. De Tiège, Van Bogaert P.<p>and Peigneux P. (in preparation). How learning new meanings about novel objects modulates cerebral<p>activity in children: A MEG Study.<p>[7] Urbain C. Schmitz R. Bourguignon M. Op De Beeck M. Galer S, De Tiège X. Van Bogaert P.<p>Peigneux P. (2011). Learning and Fast-Mapping Meanings to Novel Object in Children: A MEG Study.<p>17th Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping [HBM], 26-30 June 2011, Québec<p>City, Canada<p>[8] Urbain C. et al. Is sleep-related consolidation impaired in focal idiopathic epilepsies of childhood?<p>A pilot study, Epilepsy and Behavior, 2011, 22(2), 380-384.<p>[9] Van Bogaert P. Urbain C. Galer S. Ligot N. Peigneux P. and De Tiège X. Impact of focal<p>interictal epileptiform discharges on behaviour and cognition in children. Neurophysiologie<p>Clinique/Clinical Neurophysiology, 2012, 42(1–2), 53-58. / Doctorat en Sciences Psychologiques et de l'éducation / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between mobility and the standardized testing environment. The project focused on nine students who had a pronounced need for movement while learning and/or being tested. The study was conducted to determine whether the achievement scores of these nine students would be influenced by the denial or availability of movement while they were administered a standardized reading test. Twenty-one second grade students were the subjects. Two forms of Level B of the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test were used. All subjects were tested in a traditional environment with no movement allowed. The same subjects were then tested at a later time in a mobile environment with movement and change of location permitted. The Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Signed-Rank Test was used as the statistical base. Results showed a .05 significance. Of the nine mobile students, six scored equally as well or better when placed in a mobile testing environment.