Off-Line Learning and the Primary Motor Cortex

• Published in: The Journal of neuroscience Vol. 25; no. 27; pp. 6372 - 6378
• Main Authors: Robertson, Edwin M, Press, Daniel Z, Pascual-Leone, Alvaro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Soc Neuroscience 06.07.2005; Society for Neuroscience
• Subjects: Adult; Awareness; Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive; Circadian Rhythm - physiology; Fingers - physiology; Humans; Learning - physiology; Male; Memory - physiology; Mental Recall; Motor Cortex - physiology; Motor Skills - physiology; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Reaction Time; Sleep - physiology; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
• ISSN: 0270-6474; 1529-2401
• DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1851-05.2005

We are all familiar with acquiring skills during practice, but skill can also continue to develop between practice sessions. These "off-line" improvements are frequently supported by sleep, but they can be time dependent when a skill is acquired unintentionally. The magnitude of these over-day and overnight improvements is similar, suggesting that a similar mechanism may support both types of off-line improvements. However, here we show that disruption of the primary motor cortex with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation blocks off-line improvements over the day but not overnight. This suggests that a memory may be rescued overnight and subsequently enhanced or that different aspects of a skill, with differential dependencies on the primary motor cortex, are enhanced over day and overnight. Off-line improvements of similar magnitude are not supported by similar mechanisms; instead, the mechanisms engaged may depend on brain state.