Sleep benefits perceptual but not movement-based learning of locomotor sequences

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Practicing complex locomotor skills, such as those involving a step sequence engages distinct perceptual and motor mechanisms that support the recall of learning under new conditions (i.e., skill transfer). While sleep has been shown to enhance learning of sequences of fine movements (i.e., sleep-dependent consolidation), here we examined whether this benefit extends to learning of a locomotor pattern. Specifically, we tested the perceptual and motor learning of a locomotor sequence following sleep compared to wake. We hypothesized that post-practice sleep would increase locomotor sequence learning in the perceptual, but not in the motor domain. In this study, healthy young adult participants (n = 48; 18–33 years) practiced a step length sequence on a treadmill cued by visual stimuli displayed on a screen during training. Participants were then tested in a perceptual condition (backward walking with the same visual stimuli), or a motor condition (forward walking but with an inverted screen). Skill was assessed immediately, and again after a 12-h delay following overnight sleep or daytime wake (n = 12 for each interval/condition). Off-line learning improved following sleep compared to wake, but only for the perceptual condition. Our results suggest that perceptual and motor sequence learning are processed separately after locomotor training, and further points to a benefit of sleep that is rooted in the perceptual as opposed to the motor aspects of motor learning.