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Current concepts in procedural consolidation

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 5, pages 576–582 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

Practice is vital to the acquisition of new skills, but the brain does not stop processing information when practice stops. After practice, changes take place that strengthen and modify the new skill. These changes, described under the umbrella term 'consolidation', take two distinct forms: the enhancement of skills and the stabilization of memories. Here we describe and evaluate the evidence for these types of consolidation.

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Figure 1: The main features of two types of procedural consolidation.
Figure 2: Off-line learning and the effects of practice.
Figure 3: Proactive and retroactive interference.
Figure 4: Blocked and interleaved practice.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to M. Glickstein and D. Press for helpful discussions, and to M. Casement and D. Cohen for their thoughtful comments on this manuscript. The National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression (E.M.R.), the National Institutes of Health (A.P.L.) the Goldberg Foundation (A.P.L.) and the Wellcome Trust (R.C.M.) financially supported this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Laboratory for Magnetic Brain Stimulation, Behavioral Neurology Unit, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue, Kirstein Building KS 454, Boston, 02215, Massachusetts, USA

    Edwin M. Robertson & Alvaro Pascual-Leone

  2. the Institut Guttmann, Hospital de Neurorehabilitació, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, 08916, Spain

    Alvaro Pascual-Leone

  3. the department of Behavioural Brain Sciences, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK

    R. Chris Miall

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  1. Edwin M. Robertson
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Correspondence to Edwin M. Robertson.

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Robertson, E., Pascual-Leone, A. & Miall, R. Current concepts in procedural consolidation. Nat Rev Neurosci 5, 576–582 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1426

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