There is substantial behavioral evidence for a phenomenon commonly called “the testing effect”, i.e. superior memory performance after repeated testing compared to re-study of to-be-learned materials. However, considerably less is known about the underlying neuro-cognitive processes that are involved in the initial testing phase, and thus underlies the actual testing effect. Here, we investigated functional brain activity related to test-enhanced learning with feedback. Subjects learned foreign vocabulary across three consecutive tests with correct-answer feedback. Functional brain-activity responses were analyzed in relation to retrieval and feedback events, respectively. Results revealed up-regulated activity in fronto-striatal regions during the first successful retrieval, followed by a marked reduction in activity as a function of improved learning. Whereas feedback improved behavioral performance across consecutive tests, feedback had a negligable role after the first successful retrieval for functional brain-activity modulations. It is suggested that the beneficial effects of test-enhanced learning is regulated by feedback-induced updating of memory representations, mediated via the striatum, that might underlie the stabilization of memory commonly seen in behavioral studies of the testing effect.

有大量的行为证据可证明通常被称为“测试效果”的现象”，即与重新学习要学习的材料相比，经过反复测试后具有出众的存储性能。但是，对于初始测试阶段所涉及的潜在神经认知过程的了解却很少，因此是实际测试效果的基础。在这里，我们调查了与反馈相关的测试增强型学习相关的功能性大脑活动。受试者通过连续三个正确答案的测试学习了外国词汇。分析了功能性脑活动反应与检索和反馈事件的关系。结果显示，在首次成功检索期间，额叶纹状体区域的活性上调，然后随着学习能力的提高，活动明显减少。鉴于反馈在连续测试中改善了行为表现，首次成功检索功能性脑活动调节后，反馈的作用微不足道。建议通过纹状体介导的记忆表征的反馈诱导更新来调节测试增强学习的有益效果，这可能是对测试效果的行为研究中常见的记忆稳定的基础。