Awakened Minds Incorporated

Anyone who's learned to ride a bike or touch type might have wondered how a task that is so arduous at first could be so seamlessly easy later.  A new study reveals more about exactly what goes on in the brain as we form these habits, transitioning from intense concentration to autopilot. The results, found in rats but thought to be analogous to humans, show that habitual learning, as it's called, involves two brain circuits — one used for movement and the other for higher, cognitive thinking. As a task is learned, these circuits trade off in terms of their engagement.  The movement circuit, which involves a part of the brain called the dorsolateral striatum, becomes more active, while the cognitive circuit, which involves a region called the dorsomedial striatum, takes a dip. "If you imagine these two systems are competing, then at the end stages of training, activity in the dorsomedial striatum is fairly weak whereas activity in the dorsolateral str...