title: The impact of obstructive sleep apnea on motor skill acquisition and consolidation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Recent investigations suggest that motor skill learning is impaired in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) syndrome; however, it is not fully understood at what stages of learning this impairment occurs. The current study aimed to compare motor learning and memory across both daytime acquisition and overnight consolidation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twelve OSA patients and twelve control participants, matched for age and education, were recruited and completed the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale and the sequential finger-tapping task (SFTT), a motor skill learning task, both before and after polysomnographic recorded sleep.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the evening acquisition phase both groups showed significant and equitable improvement in the number of correctly typed sequences across trials. On retesting the following morning, the control patients showed significantly greater improvement overnight (15.35%) compared to OSA patients (1.78%). The post sleep improvement in controls, but lacking in OSA patients, was typical of a sleep dependent enhancement effect. The magnitude of improvement overnight for either group was not significantly correlated with any of the recorded sleep variables.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest daytime/practice related acquisition of motor skill is largely intact in OSA patients; however, marked impairment in the consolidation phase is evident following a sleep period. This particular pattern of dysfunction may remain unnoticed following single-day learning/memory assessments.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Shane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Landry
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Clare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Andrewartha
authors.affiliation: Lafayette Specialist Centre, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sasse
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Russell
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Conduit
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009048:Motor Skills; D017286:Polysomnography; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000523:psychology*; D012894:Sleep Stages
keywords: OSA; learning; memory; motor skills; obstructive sleep apnea; sleep-dependent consolidation