title: Learning to never forget-time scales and specificity of long-term memory of a motor skill.
abstract: Despite anecdotal reports that humans retain acquired motor skills for many years, if not a lifetime, long-term memory of motor skills has received little attention. While numerous neuroimaging studies showed practice-induced cortical plasticity, the behavioral correlates, what is retained and also what is forgotten, are little understood. This longitudinal case study on four subjects presents detailed kinematic analyses of humans practicing a bimanual polyrhythmic task over 2 months with retention tests after 6 months and, for two subjects, after 8 years. Results showed that individuals not only retained the task, but also reproduced their individual "style" of performance, even after 8 years. During practice, variables such as the two hands' frequency ratio and relative phase, changed at different rates, indicative of multiple time scales of neural processes. Frequency leakage across hands, reflecting intermanual crosstalk, attenuated at a significantly slower rate and was the only variable not maintained after 8 years. Complementing recent findings on neuroplasticity in gray and white matter, our study presents new behavioral evidence that highlights the multi-scale process of practice-induced changes and its remarkable persistence. Results suggest that motor memory may comprise not only higher-level task variables but also individual kinematic signatures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Northeastern University Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Se-Woong
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Tjeerd M H
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Dijkstra
authors.forename: Dagmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sternad
keywords: bimanual coordination; intermanual crosstalk; long-term memory; relative phase; retention; skill learning
references.citation: Behav Neurosci. 1993 Dec;107(6):899-910
references.pmid: 8136066
references.citation: PLoS Comput Biol. 2008 Nov;4(11):e1000209
references.pmid: 19008936
references.citation: J Mot Behav. 1999 Sep;31(3):224-235
references.pmid: 11177633
references.citation: Exp Brain Res. 2007 Feb;176(4):559-74
references.pmid: 16917769
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2009 Oct 14;29(41):12748-56
references.pmid: 19828785
references.citation: J Neurophysiol. 2008 Nov;100(5):2948-55
references.pmid: 18784273
references.citation: Psychon Bull Rev. 2000 Jun;7(2):185-207
references.pmid: 10909131
references.citation: Exp Brain Res. 1994;98(3):523-34
references.pmid: 8056072
references.citation: Neuron. 2011 Nov 3;72(3):443-54
references.pmid: 22078504
references.citation: Nature. 2004 Jan 22;427(6972):311-2
references.pmid: 14737157
references.citation: Exp Brain Res. 1996;107(3):479-85
references.pmid: 8821387
references.citation: J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1992 Nov;18(4):934-47
references.pmid: 1431756
references.citation: J Mot Behav. 1996 Sep;28(3):255-269
references.pmid: 12529208
references.citation: Psychol Rev. 2001 Jan;108(1):57-82
references.pmid: 11212633
references.citation: Biol Cybern. 1992;67(3):223-31
references.pmid: 1498188
references.citation: Neural Comput. 2013 Feb;25(2):328-73
references.pmid: 23148415
references.citation: Biol Cybern. 1985;51(5):347-56
references.pmid: 3978150
references.citation: J Neurophysiol. 2008 Jun;99(6):3027-41
references.pmid: 18353911
references.citation: Exp Brain Res. 2009 May;195(1):59-72
references.pmid: 19288090
references.citation: Biol Cybern. 2012 Dec;106(11-12):727-39
references.pmid: 23124919
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2013 Jun 26;33(26):10772-89
references.pmid: 23804099
references.citation: PLoS Comput Biol. 2010 Aug 19;6(8):
references.pmid: 20808880
references.citation: Nat Neurosci. 2002 Apr;5(4):376-81
references.pmid: 11914724
references.citation: J Neurosci. 1997 Jan 1;17(1):409-19
references.pmid: 8987766
references.citation: Exp Brain Res. 2007 Jul;181(1):13-30
references.pmid: 17530234
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2011 Aug 17;31(33):11808-13
references.pmid: 21849541
references.citation: Nature. 2009 Dec 17;462(7275):915-9
references.pmid: 19946267
references.citation: J Neurophysiol. 2011 Apr;105(4):1722-31
references.pmid: 21273324
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2000 Dec 1;20(23):8916-24
references.pmid: 11102502
references.citation: Adv Exp Med Biol. 2009;629:127-37
references.pmid: 19227498
references.citation: Nat Neurosci. 2003 Mar;6(3):300-8
references.pmid: 12563264
references.citation: PLoS Biol. 2006 Jun;4(6):e179
references.pmid: 16700627
references.citation: J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1987 May;13(2):178-92
references.pmid: 2953849
references.citation: Biol Cybern. 1995 Jun;73(1):27-35
references.pmid: 7654847
references.citation: Exp Brain Res. 2008 May;187(3):467-75
references.pmid: 18320180
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2010 Mar 24;30(12):4515-21
references.pmid: 20335489
references.citation: PLoS One. 2012;7(2):e31770
references.pmid: 22384072
references.citation: J Mot Behav. 1999 Sep;31(3):236-247
references.pmid: 11177634
references.citation: Nat Neurosci. 2004 Oct;7(10):1136-43
references.pmid: 15452580
references.citation: Nat Neurosci. 2009 Nov;12(11):1370-1
references.pmid: 19820707
references.citation: Neuroimage. 2007;36 Suppl 2:T16-21
references.pmid: 17499163
references.citation: Neuroimage. 2004 Apr;21(4):1416-27
references.pmid: 15050567
references.citation: Nature. 2009 Dec 17;462(7275):920-4
references.pmid: 19946265
references.citation: J Neurophysiol. 2009 May;101(5):2218-29
references.pmid: 19073794
references.citation: Nat Neurosci. 2005 Sep;8(9):1148-50
references.pmid: 16116456
references.citation: J Mot Behav. 1999 Sep;31(3):207-223
references.pmid: 11177632
references.citation: J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1991 Feb;17(1):183-97
references.pmid: 1826311
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1996 Nov 26;93(24):13515-22
references.pmid: 8942965
references.citation: J Neurophysiol. 2007 Feb;97(2):1819-32
references.pmid: 17182912
references.citation: Behav Brain Res. 2007 Mar 28;178(2):244-9
references.pmid: 17257689