Replay in the human visual cortex during brief task pauses is linked to implicit learning of successor representations.

ABSTRACT: Humans can implicitly learn about multistep sequential relationships between events in the environment from their statistical co-occurrence. Theoretical work has suggested that neural replay is a candidate mechanism that aids such learning. Here, we used functional MRI (fMRI) to test whether replay is related to implicit learning of higher-order sequential relationships. Human participants viewed sequences of images that followed probabilistic transitions determined by ring-like graph structures. Behavioral modeling of response times revealed that participants acquired multistep transition knowledge in a manner consistent with gradual updating of an internal successor representation (SR) model. Yet, half of participants did not report being aware of any sequential task structure, and most

SUBMITTER: Wittkuhn L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12403150 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature