Sleep-dependent motor memory consolidation in healthy adults: A meta-analysis

• Published in: Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews 2020-11, Vol.118, p.270-281
• Main Authors: Schmid, Daniel, Erlacher, Daniel, Klostermann, André, Kredel, Ralf, Hossner, Ernst-Joachim
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Finger tapping task; Meta-analysis; Mirror tracing task; Motor memory consolidation; Procedural memory; Relative sleep gain
• ISSN: 0149-7634; 1873-7528
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.07.028

•A comparison between all sleep and wake groups resulted in a small positive effect of sleep for motor memory consolidation.•A short daytime sleep period yields nearly the same consolidation effect as a whole night of sleep.•The by far mostly used paradigms in sleep and motor memory research are the finger tapping task and the mirror tracing task.•It is impossible to disentangle sleep-dependent effects on motor memory consolidation on a task-specific level of analysis.•Future research should focus on different task dimensions and their respective sleep-dependent effect on motor memory consolidation. It is widely accepted that sleep better facilitates the consolidation of motor memories than does a corresponding wake interval (King et al., 2017). However, no in-depth analysis of the various motor tasks and their relative sleep gain has been conducted so far. Therefore, the present meta-analysis considered 48 studies with a total of 53 sleep (n = 829) and 53 wake (n = 825) groups. An overall comparison between all sleep and wake groups resulted in a small effect for the relative sleep gain in motor memory consolidation (g = 0.43). While no subgroup differences were identified for differing designs, a small effect for the finger tapping task (g = 0.47) and a medium effect for the mirror tracing task (g = 0.62) were found. In summary, the meta-analysis substantiates that sleep generally benefits the consolidation of motor memories. However, to further our understanding of the mechanisms underlying this effect, examining certain task dimensions and their relative sleep gain would be a promising direction for future research.