A brief nap is beneficial for human route-learning: The role of navigation experience and EEG spectral power.
Here, we examined the effect of a daytime nap on changes in virtual maze performance across a single day. Participants either took a short nap or remained awake following training on a virtual maze task. Post-training sleep provided a clear performance benefit at later retest, but only for those participants with prior experience navigating in a three-dimensional (3D) environment. Performance improvements in experienced players were correlated with delta-rich stage 2 sleep. Complementing observations that learning-related brain activity is reiterated during post-navigation NREM sleep in rodents, the present data demonstrate that NREM sleep confers a performance advantage for spatial memory in humans.
Wamsley
Erin J
EJ
Center for Sleep and Cognition, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA. EWamsley@bidmc.harvard.edu
Tucker
Matthew A
MA
Payne
Jessica D
JD
Stickgold
Robert
R
D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008568:Memory; D012894:Sleep Stages / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception; D013037:Spatial Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D013057:Spectrum Analysis; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D055815:Young Adult