Efficacy of overnight sleep for a newly acquired visuomotor skill

Abstract

The present study examined the efficacy of overnight sleep for a newly acquired visuomotor skill. Twenty healthy student volunteers were randomly assigned to either the Wake or the Sleep group. Figures rotated visually to the right (rotated image) and non-rotated figures (non-rotated image) were presented alternately on a display. Participants traced the figures without looking at their hand. Prior to the experimental day, they were trained to trace the non-rotated image. On the experimental day, the Sleep group performed the learning session before retiring and the test session on the next morning. The Wake group performed the learning session in the morning and after a waking interval they performed the test session in the early evening. Tracing time for the rotated image was shortened between the learning and the test session only in the Sleep group. There was no remarkable change in performance for the non-rotated image in both groups. The present study demonstrates that one night of sleep after training is efficacious for learning a newly acquired visuomotor skill. The consolidation process supported by neural plasticity is likely to continue during subsequent night sleep.