Sleep improves accuracy, but not speed, of generalized motor learning in young and older adults and in individuals with Parkinson's disease.

ABSTRACT: An essential aspect of motor learning is generalizing procedural knowledge to facilitate skill acquisition across diverse conditions. Here, we examined the development of generalized motor learning during initial practice-dependent learning, and how distinct components of learning are consolidated over longer timescales during wakefulness or sleep. In the first experiment, a group of young healthy volunteers engaged in a novel motor sequence task over 36 h in a two-arm experimental design (either morning-evening-morning, or evening-morning-evening) aimed at controlling for circadian confounders. The findings unveiled an immediate, rapid generalization of sequential learning, accompanied by an additional long-timescale performance gain. Sleep modulated accuracy, but not speed, above and bey

SUBMITTER: Lanir-Azaria S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11464313 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature