Behavioural neuroscienceSleep-dependent motor memory plasticity in the human brain
Section snippets
Experimental procedures
The experiment was approved by the local human studies committee, and in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.
Behavioral data
At the end of the initial training sessions in the NIGHT-SLEEP and DAY-WAKE protocols (average of trials 10–12), subjects achieved near identical performance levels (Speed: 17.55 [1.59±S.E.M.] vs. 17.91 [1.79±S.E.M.] sequences/trial respectively, paired t-test [t(11)=0.46, P=0.64]; Error Rate: 0.11 [0.03±S.E.M.] vs. 0.13 [0.02±S.E.M.] errors/sequence respectively, paired t-test [t(11)=0.83, P=0.42]). Therefore, the post-training level of acquired skill did not differ between the two conditions,
Discussion
We have identified regionally specific differences in functional activation during retesting on a motor-sequence task following a night of sleep, relative to a corresponding time interval awake. These changes cannot be explained either by 1) differences in initial training, since subjects received the same amount of initial practice, and achieved similar post-training skill levels, or 2) circadian influences on performance-related brain activation, since a separate comparison of task-related
Conclusions
In summary, these findings describe a systems-level change in the neural representation of a learned motor-sequence following a night of sleep. This pattern of overnight plasticity, associated with sleep-dependent memory processing, holds important implications for the learning of countless real-life motor skills, and also suggests its potential impairment or complete absence in psychiatric disorders expressing a failure of normal sleep-dependent motor learning (Manoach et al., 2004). It also
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Drs. Christian Gaiser, Seung-Schik Yoo, Edward Pace-Schott and Edwin Robertson for their guidance and helpful comments regarding these findings, and Alex Morgan for technical assistance. This work was supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (MH 48,832; MH 65,292; MH 67,754; MH 69,935 and NS 45,049) and the Dana Foundation.
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