Sleep forms memory for finger skills

An article just appeared in PNAS that is of interest to piano players. (see http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/182178199v1)

'Sleep forms memory for finger skills'

Stefan Fischer, Manfred Hallschmid, Anna Lisa Elsner, and Jan Born *

Department of Neuroendocrinology, University of Lübeck, D-23538 Lübeck, Germany

Edited by James L. McGaugh, University of California, Irvine, CA, and approved July 18, 2002 (received for review March 26, 2002)

Practicing a motor skill triggers a process of memory consolidation that continues for hours after practice has ended, and becomes manifest in an improved skill at later testing. We used a sequential motor task (finger-to-thumb opposition task) to show that, in humans, the formation of motor skill memories essentially benefits from sleep. Independent of whether placed during daytime or nighttime, sleep after practice enhanced speed of sequence performance on average by 33.5% and reduced error rate by 30.1% as compared with corresponding intervals of wakefulness. The effect of sleep after learning proved to be stable when retesting was postponed for another night, to exclude effects of sleep loss and to assure that all subjects had sufficient sleep before retrieval testing. Also, the consolidating effect of sleep was specific for the motor sequence learned. It did not generalize to a similar sequence containing identical movement segments in a different order. Retention periods of wakefulness improved performance only moderately and only if placed during daytime. The observations demonstrate a critical role of sleep for storing and optimizing motor skills.

Well, duh. Any piano student could have told them that and saved them a lot of time!

Yes but scientists dont believe in anecdotal evidence even if from a scientist outside their field. TS

'Finger to thumb opposition task' ... wow ! I hope that the monkeys had not been harmed during the tests.

Oops, 'humans' she says...

not 30%, not roughly 'a third' but 'on average by 33.5%' ...rocket science !

Now that's interesting : 'a similar sequence...in a different order'

Bobkes, pure bobkes.

I would be extremely interested if you would explain how you came to this conclusion.

If you insist in being imprecise... 35% is closer to the observed value than 30%. 'A third' would be appropriate for a press release, but this is an abstract of a scientific paper. If the precision offered is warranted, it's desirable to transmit it. Whether it's warranted or not depends on the methodology used for obtaining it, not on what the popular reader thinks is appropriate.

What's interesting about that? Do you need examples of similar sequences that have different orders of elements?

Have you read the entire paper before reaching this conclusion?

Knowing Radu, it is unlikely he even read your post before reaching his

Most of these papers are students works, based on very small samples. I've read 'discoveries' based on samples as 'large' as 9 people. So when someone gives me the 33.5 or 30.1% of 9 people, I have my doubts...

Using the definition of a 'sequence'

1.A following of one thing after another; succession. 2.An order of succession; an arrangement. 3.A related or continuous series. See Synonyms at series. 4.Games. Three or more playing cards in consecutive order; a run. 5.A series of related shots that constitute a complete unit of action in a movie. 6.Music. A melodic or harmonic pattern successively repeated at different pitches with or without a key change. 7.Roman Catholic Church. A hymn sung between the gradual and the Gospel. 8.Mathematics. An ordered set of quantities, as x, 2x2, 3x3, 4x4. 9.Biochemistry. The order of constituents in a polymer, especially the order of nucleotides in a nucleic acid or of the amino acids in a protein.

my understabding is that a 'similar sequence' has the same order of elements

Did you ?

Besides, I've posted here, more than one time, Josef Hoffmann' thoughts about the time it takes to some piece to get 'impressed' on the memory - he compared the process to the photographic one.

So what I object, are the TOO many papers published on trivial issues and the tabloids making big fuss over each one of them, each day.

1.There is no 'entire' paper online. The link is to an abstract 2.You don't know nothing about me. 3.If you would go to the provided link you would notice the title of the page:

Psychology-BS Sleep forms memory for finger skills

I wonder what the first line means...

This is what I called PPI (post practice improvement) in my book and is well known in piano practice. It is not clear that sleep induces it. My own theory is that it occurs all the time. However, while not asleep, all kinds of other motor skills, memory, etc., and also being learned, and these can interfere or temporarily delay the PPI, which makes sleep look like it is beneficial. ei, if you are awake, but relaxed and not doing anything, the improvement might be equal to sleep. The effect should be quite familiar to anyone who has done any serious piano practice. C. C. Chang