Nap it or leave it in the elderly: A nap after practice relaxes age-related limitations in procedural memory consolidation.
Using a training protocol that effectively induces procedural memory consolidation (PMC) in young adults, we show that older adults are good learners, robustly improving their motor performance during training. However, performance declined over the day, and overnight 'offline' consolidation phase performance gains were under-expressed. A post-training nap countered these deficits. PMC processes are preserved but under-engaged in the elderly; sleep can relax some of the age-related constraints on long-term plasticity.
Department of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Social Welfare & Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel. Electronic address: korman.maria@gmail.com.
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M
Korman
Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel.
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Y
Dagan
Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel.
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A
Karni
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000069077:Memory Consolidation / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009048:Motor Skills; D012890:Sleep
Aging; Consolidation; Learning; Nap; Procedural memory; Sleep