Cognitive, Behavioral, and Systems NeuroscienceResearch PaperSleep consolidates the effector-independent representation of a motor skill
Section snippets
Participants
Seventy-two healthy subjects aged between 18 and 28 years (mean 23.1 years, SD 2.5 years, 39 females, 33 males) participated in the study. All participants were right-handed as defined by the Edinburgh Handedness Questionnaire (Oldfield, 1971). Exclusion criteria were any neurological, psychiatric or sleep disorder, a history of any impairment to the central nervous system like trauma, infections, tumours, surgical procedures, substance dependency. Musicians, professional typists, shift-working
Finger sequence tapping during training
The six experimental groups did not show significant differences in finger sequence tapping performance in the training phase. Sequence tapping speed significantly improved across the 15 training trails starting with a mean (±SEM) of 10.62±0.60 sequences per 30 s on the 1st trail to 18.14±0.57 sequences per 30 s on the 15th trail (F=56.52, P<0.0001, for ANOVA main effect of “trial”; P>0.7, for main and interaction effects of the “group” factor). In parallel, accuracy improved across the 15
Discussion
We found significant transfer effects after training with the left hand to performance with the right hand for extrinsic transformations of a sequence which were evident already shortly after training. These extrinsic transfer effects were maintained after a 12-h period covering nocturnal sleep, but decayed after a 12-h period of wakefulness. We did not see any transfer effects for an intrinsic transformation of the sequence acutely after training or after 12-h periods of sleep or wakefulness.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by a grant from the Deutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftSFB 654 “Plasticity and Sleep.”
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Contribution of authors:
The following authors are responsible for the concept and the design of the study: KW, NM, CB, GD and JB.
The following authors acquired the data: CB and NM.
The following authors analysed and interpreted the data: KW, CB, NM, GD, JB.
The following authors drafted all or part of the paper: KW, NM, JB.
The following authors critically reviewed the paper: CB, GD.
The following authors contributed their statistical expertise: KW, NM.
GD and JB obtained funding and held supervision.