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. 2008 Aug;31(8):1149-56.

Motor sequence learning increases sleep spindles and fast frequencies in post-training sleep

Amélie Morin  1 , Julien Doyon, Valérie Dostie, Marc Barakat, Abdallah Hadj Tahar, Maria Korman, Habib Benali, Avi Karni, Leslie G Ungerleider, Julie Carrier
Affiliations

Motor sequence learning increases sleep spindles and fast frequencies in post-training sleep

Amélie Morin et al. Sleep. 2008 Aug.

Abstract

Study objectives: To investigate polysomnographic (PSG) sleep and NREM sleep characteristics, including sleep spindles and spectral activity involved in offline consolidation of a motor sequence learning task.

Design: Counterbalanced within-subject design.

Setting: Three weekly visits to the sleep laboratory.

Participants: Fourteen healthy participants aged between 20 and 30 years (8 women).

Interventions: Motor sequence learning (MSL) task or motor control (CTRL) task before sleep.

Measurements and results: Subjects were trained on either the MSL or CTRL task in the evening and retested 12 hours later the following morning on the same task after a night of PSG sleep recording. Total number and duration of sleep spindles and spectral power between 0.5 and 24 Hz were quantified during NREM sleep. After performing the MSL task, subjects exhibited a large increase in number and duration of sleep spindles compared to after the CTRL task. Higher sigma (sigma; 13 Hz) and beta (beta; 18-20 Hz) spectral power during the post-training night's sleep were also observed after the MSL task.

Conclusions: These results provide evidence that sleep spindles are involved in the offline consolidation of a new sequence of finger movements known to be sleep dependent. Moreover, they expand on prior findings by showing that changes in NREM sleep following motor learning are specific to consolidation (and learning), and not to nonspecific motor activity. Finally, these data demonstrate, for the first time, higher fast rhythms (beta frequencies) during sleep after motor learning.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Learning curves expressed in (A) as speed (= number of correct sequences per 30-sec trial block on the MSL task) and in (B) as speed (= number of correct response per 30-sec trial block on the CTRL task). Performance levels are shown across the initial training session and the retest session, which was performed 12 hours later, after sleep. (A) In the MSL task, a 72% improvement in performance speed was seen from block 1 to block 12, with asymptotic level reached in the last 4 blocks. No within-session improvement was found in the retest session. (B) In the CTRL task, a 19% improvement was observed and asymptotic level was reached by the end of the training, as measured by the absence of performance speed improvement in the last 8 practice blocks. Again, no learning effect was observed between trials in the retest session. Error bars, SEM; NS, nonsignificant.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A) Total number and (B) duration (sec) of sleep spindles averaged by third of night of sleep. Filled bars indicate sleep following the MSL task and hatched bars represent sleep after the CTRL task. Total number and duration of sleep spindles were significantly higher across all sleep thirds of night (***P
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mean (FZ, CZ, PZ, OZ derivations) all-night spectral power in NREM sleep following the MSL task expressed relative to the values of the CTRL task. Data are averaged within each 1-Hz frequency bin identified by their lower boundary value. *Significant task effects. Error bars, SEM.
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