Biology subjects

Van Roy, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Van Roy, A..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Neural correlates of motor sequence learning and enhanced offline consolidation in 7- to 11-year-old children

IntroMany daily activities involve series of interrelated movements and thus the capacity to learn new motor sequences is vital for everyday functioning. Although learning new skills is especially prominent throughout childhood, remarkably few studies have examined the neural underpinnings of motor sequence learning (MSL) and memory consolidation in children. MethodsTwenty-two children (7-11 years) and 23 adults (18-30 years) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while completing two sessions of a MSL task, separated by a 5-hour offline period of wakefulness. ResultsAnalyses of the behavioral data revealed comparable initial learning in children and adults. However, and consistent with previous research, children exhibited superior motor memory consolidation over the 5-hour offline epoch. Neuroimaging analyses revealed that children exhibited smaller modulations in brain activity between task and rest epochs in a widespread network, including the sensorimotor cortex, supplementary motor area, cerebellum, putamen and regions associated with the default mode network. Similar levels of activity during task and rest epochs in the hippocampus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and somatosensory cortex were associated with better motor memory consolidation in children. ConclusionResults potentially suggest that the continued engagement of the developing brain during interleaved rest contributes to the childhood advantage in motor memory consolidation.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Impaired online and enhanced offline motor sequence learning in individuals with Parkinson's disease

Whereas memory consolidation research has traditionally focused on longer temporal windows (i.e., hours to days) following an initial learning episode, recent research has also examined the functional significance of the shorter rest epochs commonly interspersed with blocks of task practice (i.e., "micro-offline" intervals on the timescale of seconds to minutes). In the motor sequence learning domain, evidence from young, healthy individuals suggests that micro-offline epochs afford a rapid consolidation process that is supported by the hippocampus. Consistent with these findings, amnesic patients with hippocampal damage were recently found to exhibit degraded micro-offline performance improvements. Interestingly, these offline losses were compensated for by larger performance gains during online practice. Given the known role of the striatum in online motor sequence learning, we hypothesized that individuals with dysfunction of the striatal system would exhibit impaired online, yet enhanced micro-offline, learning (i.e., a pattern of results opposite to those observed in patients with hippocampal lesions). We tested this hypothesis using Parkinsons disease (PD) as a model of striatal dysfunction. Forty-two drug-naive individuals (men and women) with a clinical diagnosis of unilateral PD and 30 healthy control subjects completed a motor sequence learning paradigm. Individuals with PD exhibited deficits during online task practice that were paralleled by greater improvements over micro-offline intervals. This pattern of results could not be explained by disease-related deficits in movement execution. These data suggest that striatal dysfunction disrupts online learning, yet total learning remains unchanged because of greater micro-offline performance improvements that potentially reflect hippocampal-mediated compensatory processes. Significance StatementThe short rest intervals commonly interspersed between periods of active task engagement have traditionally been employed to minimize the build-up of fatigue. There is recent evidence, however, suggesting that these rest epochs may play an active role in motor learning and memory processes and the hippocampus appears to be a critical brain region supporting this rapid "offline" learning. Here, we show that individuals with Parkinsons disease, a movement disorder characterized by dysfunction in the basal ganglia including the striatum, exhibit deficits during active task practice but greater learning over the interspersed offline intervals. Results potentially suggest that the relatively intact hippocampus may help compensate for motor sequence learning deficits linked to a disrupted striatal system in Parkinsons disease.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Children exhibit a developmental advantage in the offline processing of a learned motor sequence

Research that examines changes in a specific behavior across the lifespan frequently reports an inverted-U trajectory. That is, young adults exhibit optimal performance, children are conceptualized as developing systems progressing towards this ideal state, and older adulthood is characterized by performance decrements. However, not all behaviors follow this trajectory, as there are instances in which children outperform young adults. This study aimed to reveal instances of childhood advantage in the domain of motor learning and memory consolidation. Using a visually cued serial reaction time task, data were acquired from 7-35 and >55-year-old participants (n=238 datasets) across two experiments that assessed initial encoding as well as memory consolidation over 5-hour and 24-hour offline periods. Results revealed comparable initial learning dynamics among age groups, but 7- to 12-year-old children exhibited smaller sequence-specific learning relative to adolescents (13-17 year-olds), young adults (18-35 year-olds) and older adults (> 55 years). Interestingly, children demonstrated the greatest performance gains in the 5-hour and 24-hour delayed retests, reflecting enhanced motor memory consolidation. These results suggest that children exhibit an advantage in the offline processing of recently learned motor sequences.

neuroscience↗