Abstract
The generation of long-term memory for motor skills can be modulated by subsequent motor experiences that interfere with the consolidation process. Recent studies suggest that even a non-motor task may adversely affect some aspects of motor sequence memory. Here we show that motor sequence memory can be either enhanced or reduced, by different cognitive tasks. Participants were trained in performing finger movement sequences. Fully explicit instructions about the target sequence were given before practice. The buildup of procedural knowledge was tested at three time-points: immediately before training (T1), after practice (T2), and 24 hours later (T3). Each participant performed the task on two separate occasions; training on a different movement sequence on each occasion. In one condition, interference, participants performed a non-motor task immediately after T2. Half the participants solved simple math problems and half performed a simple semantic judgment task. In the baseline condition there was no additional task. All participants improved significantly between T1 and T2 (within-session gains). In addition, in the baseline condition, performance significantly improved between T2 and T3 (delayed 'off-line' gains). Solving math problems significantly enhanced these delayed gains in motor performance, whereas performing semantic decisions significantly reduced delayed gains compared to baseline. Thus, procedural motor memory consolidation can be either enhanced or inhibited by subsequent cognitive experiences. These effects do not require explicit or implicit new learning. The retrieval of unrelated, non-motor, well established knowledge can modulate procedural memory.
Highlights
Two behavioral phenomena characterize motor memory consolidation: i) the emergence of delayed (‘off-line’) gains in performance, which may be sleep dependent, and ii) declining susceptibility to competing experience (e.g., [1,2,3,4,5])
To test the influence of the order of conditions across both groups, two separate repeated measures general linear model analyses were run for speed and accuracy as dependent variables, with condition and test (2 levels: T1, T2 for within session analysis; T2, T3 for between session analysis) as within subject variables and order and interference group (Math group, Sem group) as between subject variables
The unexpected aspect of the current results is that one apparently unrelated non-motor task, performed after the termination of the training experience, can effectively enhance motor memory consolidation, while another apparently unrelated non-motor task, can interfere with motor memory consolidation. These results constitute a challenge to the view that interference of memory consolidation must necessarily be ascribed to a competition in neuronal resources shared between the trained and the subsequent tasks
Summary
Two behavioral phenomena characterize motor (how to) memory consolidation: i) the emergence of delayed (‘off-line’) gains in performance, which may be sleep dependent, and ii) declining susceptibility to competing experience (interference) (e.g., [1,2,3,4,5]). Interference may occur when the interfering and test tasks share similar kinematic or dynamic features [2,6]. Interference may be found when both tasks share overlapping neuronal representations but very little kinematic or dynamic features [7]. Different experiments resulted in apparently conflicting results [8,9]. These results challenge the classical view of the independence of declarative and procedural memory, and imply an interaction between these two memory systems [10]
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