Variable training but not sleep improves consolidation of motor adaptation

Abstract

How motor memory consolidates still remains elusive. Motor tasks consolidation were shown to depend on periods of sleep, whereas pure non-hippocampal dependent tasks, like motor adaptation, might not. Some research suggests that the mode of training might affect the sleep dependency of motor adaptation tasks. Here we investigated whether sleep differentially impacts memory consolidation dependent on the variability during training. Healthy men were trained with their dominant, right hand on a force field adaptation task and re-tested after an 11-h consolidation period either involving overnight sleep (Sleep) or daytime wakefulness (Wake). Retesting also included a transfer to the non-dominant hand. Half of the subjects in each group adapted to different force field magnitudes with low inter-trial variability (Sleep-Blocked; Wake-Blocked), the other half with high variability (Sleep-Random; Wake-Random). EEG was recorded during task execution and overnight polysomnography. Motor adaptation was comparable between Wake and Sleep groups, although performance changes over sleep correlated with sleep spindles nesting in slow wave upstates. Higher training variability improved retest, including transfer learning, and these improvements correlated with higher alpha power in contralateral parietal areas. Enhanced consolidation after training might foster the ability to correct ongoing movements by responsive feedback rather than their pre-execution prediction.