PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Kim, Taewon
AU  - Kim, Hakjoo
AU  - Philip, Benjamin A.
AU  - Wright, David L.
TI  - M1 recruitment during interleaved practice is important for encoding, not just consolidation, of novel skill memory
AID  - 10.1101/2023.07.21.550118
DP  - 2023 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2023.07.21.550118
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/07/25/2023.07.21.550118.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/07/25/2023.07.21.550118.full
AB  - Primary motor cortex (M1) plays a major role in motor memory acquisition and retention in humans, but its role in interleaved practice (as opposed to repetitive practice) remains unknown. We anticipated that the improved retention typically associated with interleaved practice depends on M1, and thus cathodal transcranial direct current (ctDCS) stimulation to M1 during training would disrupt this improved retention. The benefits of interleaved practice have been reported to occur from more effective consolidation, manifested as rapid skill memory stabilization followed by more long-term enhancement. While we observed the expected decline in retention performance following interleaved practice paired with ctDCS, this reduced retention resulted from more modest encoding of novel skill memory during acquisition rather than from disruption of offline consolidation processes. These data highlight the broad role played by motor cortex for both encoding and retention of novel skill memory.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.