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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 102/4/2462    most recent 00315.2009v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Wymbs, N. F. Articles by Grafton, S. T. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Wymbs, N. F. Articles by Grafton, S. T.

RESEARCH-ARTICLE

Neural Substrates of Practice Structure That Support Future Off-Line Learning

¹Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; and ²Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California

Submitted 7 April 2009; accepted in final form 14 August 2009

ABSTRACT

Off-line learning is facilitated when motor skills are acquired under a random practice schedule and retention suffers when a similar set of motor skills are practiced under a blocked schedule. The current study identified the neural correlates of a random training schedule while participants learned a set of four-element finger sequences using their nondominant hand during functional magnetic resonance imaging. A go/no go task was used to separately probe brain areas supporting sequence preparation and production. By the end of training, the random practice schedule, relative to the block schedule, recruited a broad premotor–parietal network as well as sensorimotor and subcortical regions during both preparation and production trials, despite equivalent motor performance. Longitudinal analysis demonstrated that preparation-related activity under a random schedule remained stable or increased over time. The blocked schedule showed the opposite pattern. Across individual subjects, successful skill retention was correlated with greater activity at the end of training in the ipsilateral left motor cortex, for both preparation and production. This is consistent with recent evidence that attributes off-line learning to training-related processing within primary motor cortex. These results reflect the importance of an overlooked aspect of motor skill learning. Specifically, how trials are organized during training—with a random schedule—provides an effective basis for the formation of enduring motor memories, through enhanced engagement of core regions involved in the active preparation and implementation of motor programs.