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The Journal of Neuroscience, November 14, 2007, 27(46):12475-12483; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2062-07.2007

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Sleep Does Not Benefit Probabilistic Motor Sequence Learning

Sunbin Song,^1,3 James H. Howard, Jr,^2,4 and Darlene V. Howard^1,3

Departments¹of Psychology and ²Neurology and ³Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20007, and ⁴Department of Psychology, Catholic University, Washington, DC 20064

Correspondence should be addressed to Sunbin Song at the above address. Email: sss35{at}georgetown.edu

It has become widely accepted that sleep-dependent consolidation occurs for motor sequence learning based on studies using finger-tapping tasks. Studies using another motor sequence learning task [the serial response time task (SRTT)] have portrayed a more nuanced picture of off-line consolidation, involving both sleep-dependent and daytime consolidation, as well as modifying influences of explicit awareness. The present study used a variant of the SRTT featuring probabilistic sequences to investigate off-line consolidation. Probabilistic sequences confer two advantages: first, spontaneous explicit awareness does not occur, and second, sequence learning measures are continuous, making it easier to separate general skill from sequence-specific learning. We found that sleep did not enhance general skill or sequence-specific learning. In contrast, daytime enhancement occurred for general skill but not for sequence-specific learning. Overall, these results suggest that motor learning does not always undergo consolidation with sleep.

Key words: sleep; daytime enhancement; memory consolidation; implicit learning; motor sequence learning; probabilistic sequences

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Received May 5, 2007; revised Sept. 25, 2007; accepted Sept. 27, 2007.

Correspondence should be addressed to Sunbin Song at the above address. Email: sss35{at}georgetown.edu

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