NSF-BSF: Reactivation and sleep in visual and motor skill acquisition: learning beyond training

学习新技能的最好方法是什么？最近的研究揭示了两种学习变得更快、更有效的方法。之前的研究表明，在训练的第一天充分练习一项运动技能后，你只需要在接下来的几天里做几次练习试验，就可以把你所学的东西重新激活，以达到与你每天都充分练习这项技能一样的技能进步。如此短暂的任务重新激活如何促进学习仍然是个谜。其他研究表明，睡眠也有助于学习视觉技能。这项研究项目的目标是整合这些重要的发现，探索技能训练后的睡眠是否能提高学习能力，并了解记忆重新激活和睡眠如何共同作用以提高技能学习效率的神经基础。在这个美国和以色列的合作项目中，研究人员调查了视觉和运动技能学习可以增强学习的神经机制，并研究了睡眠中的离线处理是否补偿了清醒时最少量的训练(仅通过几次任务重新激活)。除了监测研究参与者的学习进度外，还将测量他们在睡眠期间的大脑活动和大脑神经化学。具体地说，这项研究通过使用磁共振波谱非侵入性地测量大脑中兴奋性和抑制性神经递质之间的比率(E/I比率)来检查与大脑可塑性相关的神经化学处理。研究结果可能会揭示，通过任务重新激活短暂接触学习信息可以如何取代广泛的训练，揭示任务重新激活和睡眠之间的基本行为和大脑机制，并利用这些知识开发更有效的感觉和运动技能学习的更好方法。该项目由认知神经科学计划和已建立的刺激竞争研究计划(EPSCoR)联合资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

What is the best way to learn new skills? Recent studies have revealed two ways in which learning can become faster and more efficient. Previous research has shown that after practicing a motor skill fully on the first day of training, you only need to do a few practice trials on the following days to "reactivate" what you have learned, in order to achieve the same amount of skill improvement as if you had practiced the skill fully every day. How such brief task reactivation facilitates learning remains enigmatic. Other studies have shown how sleep also helps with learning visual skills. The goal of this research project is to integrate these important findings, explore whether sleep after skill training enhances learning and to understand the neural basis of how memory reactivation and sleep work together to make skill learning more efficient. In this collaborative US-Israel project, researchers investigate the neural mechanisms by which learning can be enhanced for both visual and motor skill learning and study whether offline processing during sleep compensates for the minimal amount of training (by only a few trials of task reactivation) during wakefulness. In addition to monitoring the learning progress of the participants in the study, their brain activity during sleep and their brain neurochemistry will also be measured. Specifically, this study examines neurochemical processing related to brain plasticity by non-invasively measuring a ratio between excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters in the brain (E/I ratio) using magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The results may reveal how brief exposure to learned information via task reactivation can replace extensive training, uncover the basic behavioral and brain mechanisms linking task reactivation and sleep, and use that knowledge to develop better methods for more efficient sensory and motor skill learning.This project is jointly funded by the Cognitive Neuroscience Program, and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.