Experience-dependent alterations in conscious resting state activity following perceptuomotor learning

• Published in: Neurobiology of learning and memory Vol. 93; no. 3; pp. 422 - 427
• Main Authors: Daselaar, S.M., Huijbers, W., de Jonge, M., Goltstein, P.M., Pennartz, C.M.A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Inc 01.03.2010; Elsevier; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Activity patterns; Adult; Animals; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Cognition & reasoning; Conscious resting state; Consciousness; Consciousness - physiology; Female; Fixation, Ocular - physiology; Functional MRI; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Haplorhini; Humans; Learning; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Memory; Motion Perception; Neurobiology; Parietal lobe; Parietal Lobe - physiology; Perceptuomotor learning; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Rats; Reactivation; Rest; Sleep; Young Adult; Pre-Rest; Reactivation; Perceptuomotor learning; Conscious resting state; Post-Rest; SVC_FWE; Parietal lobe; Functional MRI; Learning; Rest; Acquisition process; Consciousness; Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; Functional imaging
• ISSN: 1074-7427; 1095-9564
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2009.12.009

In monkeys and rats, neural activity patterns during learning are reactivated during subsequent periods of rest or sleep. According to the reactivation–consolidation account, this process underlies the consolidation of memories. Brain imaging studies have extended these findings to humans during sleep, but not yet, during rest. Here, we show that learning-related reactivation also occurs in humans during rest. During functional MRI-scanning, participants trained on a perceptuomotor task flanked by rest periods. During training, we found robust activity in the superior parietal cortex. During post-training rest, this same area reactivated. We also found a link between parietal reactivation and learning. Activity in superior parietal cortex was associated with learning during training, and a control group that did not train on the perceptuomotor task did not show any difference between the pre- and post-training rest blocks in this region. These findings indicate that, during rest, reactivation also occurs in humans. This process may contribute to consolidation of perceptuomotor memories.