人脑优于人工智能的关键机制揭示 具有重组认知模块“拼积木”能力

Core Insights - A new study from Princeton University reveals a key mechanism that allows the human brain to maintain an advantage over artificial intelligence (AI): the brain reuses cognitive "modules" across different tasks, enabling rapid construction of new behavior patterns [1][2] Group 1: Cognitive Flexibility - Advanced AI models can surpass human performance on single tasks but struggle with learning and executing multiple tasks due to a lack of cognitive flexibility [1] - Humans can easily adapt to new information or unfamiliar challenges, such as learning new software or following a recipe, while AI finds "instant" learning difficult [1] Group 2: Research Findings - The study trained two male rhesus monkeys on three related classification tasks, recording their brain activity during the process [2] - The tasks involved judging whether a blurred image resembled a rabbit or the letter "T," or determining if a color was closer to red or green, with varying degrees of image blurriness [2] - Analysis revealed that the prefrontal cortex contains several reusable activity patterns corresponding to different cognitive "blocks," allowing the brain to flexibly combine these blocks to construct new behaviors [2] Group 3: Implications for AI and Mental Health - The prefrontal cortex also suppresses certain cognitive modules when they are not needed, helping the brain focus on the current task, as cognitive resources are limited [2] - This modular and reconfigurable learning approach may explain how humans efficiently learn new skills without forgetting old ones, contrasting with AI systems that often face "catastrophic interference" [2] - Incorporating the brain's modular mechanism into AI could lead to the development of intelligent systems capable of continuous learning without forgetting [2]