Developing intuition: Neural correlates of cognitive-skill learning in caudate nucleus

摘要

The superior capability of cognitive experts largely depends on automatic, quick information processing, which is often referred to as intuition. Intuition develops following extensive long-term training. There are many cognitive models on intuition development, but its neural basisis not known. Herewe trained novices for15weeks tolearna simple board game and measured their brain activitiesinearly and end phases of the training while they quickly generated the best next-move to a given board pattern. We found that the activation in the headofcaudate nucleus developed over the courseoftraining, inparallel to the development of the capability toquickly generate the best next-move, and the magnitude of the caudate activity was correlated with the subject's performance. In contrast, cortical activations, which already appeared in the early phase of training, did not further change. Thus, neural activation in the caudate head, but not those in cortical areas, tracked the development of capability to quickly generate the best next-move, indicating that circuitries including the caudate head may automate cognitive computations.