The restorative effect of naps on perceptual deterioration

Human performance on visual texture discrimination tasks improves slowly (over days) in the absence of additional training. This 'slow learning' requires nocturnal sleep after training and is limited to the region of visual space in which training occurred. Here, we tested human subjects f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNature neuroscience Vol. 5; no. 7; pp. 677 - 681
Main Authors Mednick, Sara C, Nakayama, Ken, Cantero, Jose L, Atienza, Mercedes, Levin, Alicia A, Pathak, Neha, Stickgold, Robert
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Nature Publishing Group 01.07.2002
Subjects
Humans
Learning - physiology
Motivation
Naps (Sleep)
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Photic Stimulation
Physiological aspects
Rest - physiology
Sensory memory
Sleep - physiology
Time Factors
United States
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Summary:Human performance on visual texture discrimination tasks improves slowly (over days) in the absence of additional training. This 'slow learning' requires nocturnal sleep after training and is limited to the region of visual space in which training occurred. Here, we tested human subjects four times in one day and found that with repeated, within-day testing, perceptual thresholds actually increased progressively across the four test sessions. This performance deterioration was prevented either by shifting the target stimuli to an untrained region of visual space or by having the subjects take a mid-day nap between the second and third sessions.
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ISSN:1097-6256
1546-1726
DOI:10.1038/nn864