To selleck chemicals characterize the behavioral learning of visuomotor associations in both species, we used a logistic regression algorithm (Smith et al., 2004) to generate learning curves based on binary responses (Law et al., 2005 and Wirth et al., 2003). Typical learning curves consisted of a variable number of predominantly incorrect responses, followed by a sharp transition to predominantly correct responses. Associations were considered learned once the lower bound 95% confidence interval of the logistic regression became greater than would be expected by chance. The trial on which the learning passed this criterion was considered the

“learning trial.” An analysis of the learning trial indicated that the curves initially presented within a set could be ordered, identifying “fast,” “medium,” and “slow” learned conditions, a pattern observed both in monkeys (F(3,21) = 17.92; p < 0.001) and humans (F(3,87) = 34.91; p < 0.0005) that was linear in nature (F(1,36) = 115.97; p < 0.0005). A similar analysis of the maximum learning curve slopes reinforced the idea that the Ku-0059436 research buy curves could be ordered linearly (F(1,36) = 52.45; p < 0.0005). Overall, the pattern suggests that a common strategy was adopted by both monkeys

and humans during which only one association was “worked on” at a time (Hadj-Bouziane and Boussaoud, 2003). Although the overall learning strategy appeared remarkably similar across species, not surprisingly, both the speed of learning and number of learned associations were superior in humans compared to monkeys. Human subjects had steeper learning curves than monkeys, as evidenced by differences in the average maximum slope of learned visuomotor associations (t(125) = 13.81; p < 0.0001) and a smaller number trials to criterion (Humans: mean 4.67, range 2–28, SEM

0.68; Monkeys: mean 17.14, range 2–39, SEM 0.69; t(30) = 5.483; p < 0.0001). As a consequence, humans learned significantly more associations per session than monkeys (monkeys = 1.73, humans = 20.26; t(30) = 13.64; p < 0.0001). Of the 152 visuomotor associations presented during the 74 recording sessions, monkeys learned a total of 56.56% (86) associations. Conversely, of the 924 stimulus-location associations presented in 31 scanning sessions, TCL human subjects learned a total of 67.96% (628) associations. Thus, overall, humans also learned a significantly greater percentage of conditions than did the monkeys (χ2(1) = 7.58; p < 0.01). To identify homologies between the neurophysiological responses in the monkeys and human hippocampus and entorhinal cortex during the performance of the same behavioral task, we measured LFP recordings from two monkeys (Figures 1C and 1D) and BOLD fMRI from 31 human subjects focused on these two regions (Goense and Logothetis, 2008, Kirwan et al., 2007, Law et al., 2005 and Logothetis, 2002).