{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,8]],"date-time":"2026-06-08T10:03:47Z","timestamp":1780913027878,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"21","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,28]],"date-time":"2022-10-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1666915200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Planning and decision-making are critical managerial functions involving the brain\u2019s executive functions. However, little is known about the effect of cerebral activity during long-time learning while planning and decision-making. This study investigated the impact of planning and decision-making processes in long-time learning, focusing on a cerebral activity before and after learning. The methodology of this study involves the Tower of Hanoi (ToH) to investigate executive functions related to the learning process. Generally, ToH is used to measure baseline performance, learning rate, offline learning (following overnight retention), and transfer. However, this study performs experiments on long-time learning effects for ToH solving. The participants were involved in learning the task over seven weeks. Learning progress was evaluated based on improvement in performance and correlations with the learning curve. All participants showed a significant improvement in planning and decision-making over seven weeks of time duration. Brain activation results from fMRI showed a statistically significant decrease in the activation degree in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, parietal lobe, inferior frontal gyrus, and premotor cortex between before and after learning. Our pilot study showed that updating information and shifting issue rules were found in the frontal lobe. Through monitoring performance, we can describe the effect of long-time learning initiated at the frontal lobe and then convert it to a task execution function by analyzing the frontal lobe maps. This process can be observed by comparing the learning curve and the fMRI maps. It was also clear that the degree of activation tends to decrease with the number of tasks, such as through the mid-phase and the end-phase of training. The elucidation of this structure is closely related to decision-making in human behavior, where brain dynamics differ between \u201cthinking and behavior\u201d during complex thinking in the early stages of training and instantaneous \u201cthinking and behavior\u201d after sufficient training. Since this is related to human learning, elucidating these mechanisms will allow the construction of a brain function map model that can be used universally for all training tasks.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s22218283","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,30]],"date-time":"2022-10-30T10:47:57Z","timestamp":1667126877000},"page":"8283","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["Brain Activity Associated with the Planning Process during the Long-Time Learning of the Tower of Hanoi (ToH) Task: A Pilot Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1529-3101","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Keita","family":"Mitani","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Systems Engineering, Kochi University of Technology, 185 Miyanokuchi, Tosayamada, Kami 782-8502, Kochi, Japan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5235-8552","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Namal","family":"Rathnayake","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Systems Engineering, Kochi University of Technology, 185 Miyanokuchi, Tosayamada, Kami 782-8502, Kochi, Japan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7341-9078","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Upaka","family":"Rathnayake","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, Malabe 10115, Sri Lanka"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9966-5576","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tuan Linh","family":"Dang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Information and Communications Technology, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, No. 1 Dai Co Viet Road, Hanoi 100000, Vietnam"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5285-8007","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yukinobu","family":"Hoshino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Systems Engineering, Kochi University of Technology, 185 Miyanokuchi, Tosayamada, Kami 782-8502, Kochi, Japan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1493","DOI":"10.1212\/WNL.42.8.1493","article-title":"Cognitive planning deficit in patients with cerebellar atrophy","volume":"42","author":"Grafman","year":"1992","journal-title":"Neurology"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"281","DOI":"10.1080\/00207598208247445","article-title":"The problem of assessing executive functions","volume":"17","author":"Lezak","year":"1982","journal-title":"Int. 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