title: The restorative effect of naps on perceptual deterioration.
abstract: Human performance on visual texture discrimination tasks improves slowly (over days) in the absence of additional training. This 'slow learning' requires nocturnal sleep after training and is limited to the region of visual space in which training occurred. Here, we tested human subjects four times in one day and found that with repeated, within-day testing, perceptual thresholds actually increased progressively across the four test sessions. This performance deterioration was prevented either by shifting the target stimuli to an untrained region of visual space or by having the subjects take a mid-day nap between the second and third sessions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. smednick@wjh.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Sara C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Mednick
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakayama
authors.forename: Jose L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Cantero
authors.forename: Mercedes
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Atienza
authors.forename: Alicia A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Levin
authors.forename: Neha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pathak
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Stickgold
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D009042:Motivation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012146:Rest / Q000502:physiology; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors