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den Berg van NH, Pozzobon A, Fang Z, Al-Kuwatli J, Toor B, Ray LB, Fogel SM. Sleep Enhances Consolidation of Memory Traces for Complex Problem-Solving Skills. Cereb Cortex 2021; 32:653-667. [PMID: 34383034 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2021] [Revised: 05/13/2021] [Accepted: 06/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Sleep consolidates memory for procedural motor skills, reflected by sleep-dependent changes in the hippocampal-striatal-cortical network. Other forms of procedural skills require the acquisition of a novel strategy to solve a problem, which recruit overlapping brain regions and specialized areas including the caudate and prefrontal cortex. Sleep preferentially benefits strategy and problem-solving skills over the accompanying motor execution movements. However, it is unclear how acquiring new strategies benefit from sleep. Here, participants performed a task requiring the execution of a sequence of movements to learn a novel cognitive strategy. Participants performed this task while undergoing fMRI before and after an interval of either a full night sleep, a daytime nap, or wakefulness. Participants also performed a motor control task, which precluded the opportunity to learn the strategy. In this way, we subtracted motor execution-related brain activations from activations specific to the strategy. The sleep and nap groups experienced greater behavioral performance improvements compared to the wake group on the strategy-based task. Following sleep, we observed enhanced activation of the caudate in addition to other regions in the hippocampal-striatal-cortical network, compared to wakefulness. This study demonstrates that sleep is a privileged time to enhance newly acquired cognitive strategies needed to solve problems.
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Affiliation(s)
- N H den Berg van
- School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa K1N 6N5, Canada
| | - A Pozzobon
- School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa K1N 6N5, Canada
| | - Z Fang
- School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa K1N 6N5, Canada.,Sleep Unit, University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research at The Royal, Ottawa, Ottawa K1Z 7K4, Canada.,University of Ottawa Brain and Mind Research Institute, University of Ottawa, Ottawa K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - J Al-Kuwatli
- School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa K1N 6N5, Canada
| | - B Toor
- School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa K1N 6N5, Canada
| | - L B Ray
- School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa K1N 6N5, Canada
| | - S M Fogel
- School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa K1N 6N5, Canada.,Sleep Unit, University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research at The Royal, Ottawa, Ottawa K1Z 7K4, Canada.,University of Ottawa Brain and Mind Research Institute, University of Ottawa, Ottawa K1H 8M5, Canada
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