The time course of off-line motor sequence learning.
The acquisition of motor skill occurs with practice, but skill can also increase between sessions, a process termed "off-line learning". Here, we investigated the amount of time required for the off-line development of skills. Participants were tested on an implicit version of the Serial Reaction Time Task and re-tested 1, 4 or 12 h later. Only those re-tested 4 h or 12 h after initial testing showed off-line improvements. This demonstrates that implicitly acquired skills can increase between sessions and the process occurs over hours.
Behavioral Neurology Unit and Center for Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA 02215, USA. dpress@caregroup.harvard.edu
Daniel Z
DZ
Press
Melynda D
MD
Casement
Alvaro
A
Pascual-Leone
Edwin M
EM
Robertson
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors