@misc{10481/70227,
year = {2021},
month = {5},
url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10481/70227},
abstract = {Implicit learning refers to the incidental acquisition and expression of knowledge that is
not accompanied by full awareness of its contents. Implicit sequence learning (ISL) represents
one of the most useful paradigms to investigate these processes. In this paradigm,
participants are usually instructed to respond to the location of a target that moves
regularly through a set of possible locations. Although participants are not informed about
the existence of a sequence, they eventually learn it implicitly, as attested by the costs
observed when this sequence is violated in a reduced set of control trials. Interestingly, the
expression of this learning decreases immediately after a control trial, in a way that resembles
the adjustments triggered in response to incongruent trials in interference tasks.
These effects have been attributed to a control network involving dorsolateral prefrontal
cortex (DLPFC) and cingulate (ACC) structures. In the present work, we reviewed a group of
recent studies which had inhibited DLPFC top-down control by means of non-invasive
brain stimulation to increase the acquisition of ISL. In addition, as no previous study has
investigated the effect of inhibiting top-down control on releasing the automatic expression
of ISL, we present a pre-registered e yet exploratory e study in which an inhibitory
continuous theta burst stimulation protocol was applied over an anterior-ventral portion of
the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) highly interconnected with the ACC, and whose
activity has been specifically linked to motor control (i.e., Right DLPFC, n ¼ 10 or the Left
DLPFC, n ¼ 10), compared to active Vertex stimulation (n ¼ 10). Contrary to our hypotheses,
the results did not show evidence for the involvement of such region in the expression of ISL. We discussed the results in the context of the set of contradictory findings reported in
the systematic review.},
organization = {Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness	PSI2017-84926-P	
PSI2015-70990-P},
organization = {Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness (Juan de la Cierva-formacion)	FJCI-2017-32692},
organization = {Erasmus+ Traineeship},
publisher = {Elsevier},
keywords = {Implicit learning},
keywords = {Cognitive control},
keywords = {Non-invasive brain stimulation},
keywords = {cTBS},
keywords = {Control of implicit learning},
title = {The causal role of DLPFC top-down control on the acquisition and the automatic expression of implicit learning: State of the art},
doi = {10.1016/j.cortex.2021.04.012},
author = {Prutean, Nicoleta and Martín Arévalo, Elisa and Leiva, Alicia and Lupiáñez Castillo, Juan},
}