Off-line learning and the primary motor cortex.
We are all familiar with acquiring skills during practice, but skill can also continue to develop between practice sessions. These "off-line" improvements are frequently supported by sleep, but they can be time dependent when a skill is acquired unintentionally. The magnitude of these over-day and overnight improvements is similar, suggesting that a similar mechanism may support both types of off-line improvements. However, here we show that disruption of the primary motor cortex with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation blocks off-line improvements over the day but not overnight. This suggests that a memory may be rescued overnight and subsequently enhanced or that different aspects of a skill, with differential dependencies on the primary motor cortex, are enhanced over day and overnight. Off-line improvements of similar magnitude are not supported by similar mechanisms; instead, the mechanisms engaged may depend on brain state.
Robertson
Edwin M
EM
Center for Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA. emrobert@bidmc.harvard.edu
Press
Daniel Z
DZ
Pascual-Leone
Alvaro
A
D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology*; D005385:Fingers / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation