Penn–Max Planck Research Reveals Brain Differences Between Fast and Slow Learners
Nature Neuroscience study connects Penn and Germany’s Max Planck Society to investigate how patterns of brain activity influence the speed of learning.
Why do some people quickly master new information while others require more time? Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Germany have identified differences in patterns of brain activity that may help explain variation in how quickly people learn.
The research was led by Danielle S. Bassett, PhD, of Penn Engineering and Evelyn Tang, PhD, who conducted the work as an Africk Family Postdoctoral Fellow in Bassett’s Complex Systems Lab before joining the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization. Sharon Thompson-Schill, PhD, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor and Chair of Psychology in Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences, also contributed to the study.
Published in Nature Neuroscience, the research builds on a growing body of work examining the brain not simply as a collection of individual regions, but as a dynamic network whose patterns of interaction change as people think, learn, and acquire new skills.
Danielle S. Bassett, Ph.D.
Eduardo D. Glandt Faculty Fellow
Associate Professor of Bioengineering
School of Engineering and Applied Science
Associate Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering
School of Engineering and Applied Science
University of Pennsylvania
Bassett’s research brings together physics, network science, complex systems theory, and neuroscience to understand how the organization of the human brain gives rise to cognition and behavior. By applying mathematical approaches originally developed to study complex networks, Bassett examines how connections among brain regions change over time and how those changes relate to functions such as learning and memory.
Earlier work from Bassett and collaborators demonstrated that an individual’s ability to learn can be related to the flexibility of brain networks, the capacity of different brain regions to reorganize their connections as a new skill is acquired. Her research has helped establish network neuroscience as an approach for understanding relationships among brain organization, cognitive performance, and behavior.
Understanding Why Learning Speeds Differ
Previous research from Bassett’s laboratory suggested that slower learning can sometimes be associated with excessive engagement of brain systems involved in cognitive control. In those experiments, individuals who unnecessarily recruited regions responsible for regulating and monitoring behavior tended to take longer to learn a relatively simple task.
The newer research moves beyond individual brain regions to examine the geometry of brain activation patterns during learning. Participants learned associations between objects and numerical values while researchers compared patterns of neural activity in faster and slower learners.
By examining how activity is organized across the brain rather than focusing on isolated regions, the researchers sought to identify broader principles governing how neural systems reorganize as people acquire new information. The findings contribute to an emerging understanding of learning as a dynamic process involving changing relationships among interconnected brain systems.
From Penn to Max Planck: Research Connections Through Scholar Mobility
The project also demonstrates how scientific relationships can grow through the movement of researchers between institutions. Tang conducted the work as a postdoctoral fellow at Penn before continuing her research at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Germany, creating a connection between research communities working on complex systems and neuroscience at Penn and within the Max Planck Society.
Researcher mobility can allow ideas, methods, and collaborations developed during postdoctoral training to continue evolving across institutions and national research systems. In this case, the connection brings together Penn’s strengths in network neuroscience with a German research environment internationally recognized for the study of complex and dynamical systems.
Through support for interdisciplinary research, researcher development, and international engagement, the Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) helps foster connections that expand Penn’s global research network and create opportunities for scientific collaboration across disciplines and borders.
Learn more about network neuroscience:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-019-0400-9
Learn more about Danielle Bassett’s research and MacArthur Fellowship:
https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-2014/danielle-bassett