Encoding and consolidation of motor sequence learning in young and older adults

Aging-Related Changes in Cortical Sources of Sleep Oscillatory Neural Activity Following Motor Learning Reflect Contributions of Cortical Thickness and Pre-sleep Functional Activity

“…Aging-related declines in estimated delta source activity were observed in multiple motor cortical regions implicated in the SRTT. Reduced activity was observed in the premotor cortex, primary motor cortex, SMA, and pre-SMA regions previously shown to contribute to motor-learning-related sleep delta activity in young adults (Tamaki et al, 2013), as well as the premotor and SMA regions that show increased sequence-specific activation during SRTT performance in the present cohort (Fitzroy et al, 2021a). Reduced delta activity was also observed in caudal anterior and posterior cingulate regions, which are anatomically interconnected with premotor and primary motor cortices (Beckmann et al, 2009).…”

“…Six older adults completed the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS; Brandt et al, 1988), with all scoring within the normal cognitive status range (≥30). As reported in Fitzroy et al (2021a), young and older adults did not differ on depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory [BDI]; Beck et al, 1996), typical daytime sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Scale [ESS]; Johns, 1991), or habitual sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index [PSQI]; Buysse et al, 1989), but did differ in chronotype (Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire [MEQ]; Horne and Ostberg, 1976), with older adults typically morning types and young adults typically intermediate types.…”

“…Based on prior examinations of aging-related changes in sleep oscillatory activity at the scalp (e.g., Sprecher et al, 2016;Fitzroy et al, 2021b), we predicted that estimated source activity in the delta, theta, and sigma frequency bands during sleep would be reduced in older relative to young adults in a regiondependent manner. Moreover, given prior evidence of agingrelated reductions in frontal and motor cortical activation during motor sequence learning (Aizenstein et al, 2006;Fitzroy et al, 2021a), we predicted that aging-related reductions in estimated source activity would be larger in frontal and motor cortical regions. Broadly speaking, our results are in line with these predictions: aging-related reductions in estimated source activity were observed, varied across brain regions, and were evident in motor regions predicted to be active during the SRTT.…”

“…Moreover, based on prior evidence that gray matter atrophy mediates aging-related declines in scalp-recorded sleep oscillatory activity (Mander et al, 2013;Dubé et al, 2015;Varga et al, 2016;Fogel et al, 2017;Latreille et al, 2019;Fitzroy et al, 2021b), we predicted aging-related thinning in individual cortical regions would mediate aging-related reductions in sleep oscillatory activity within those regions, especially for frontal medial and primary motor cortices. Lastly, based on our prior findings relating brain activation during motor sequence learning to the scalp topography of sleep oscillatory activity in this cohort (Fitzroy et al, 2021a), we predicted aging-related differences in pre-sleep activation of motor sequence learning brain regions would contribute to aging-related differences in source activity during sleep, above and beyond the contributions of cortical thinning.…”

Ageing‐related changes in nap neuroscillatory activity are mediated and moderated by grey matter volume

“…Data were taken from a larger study on ageing-related changes in sleep and learning; additional analyses of data from this study are reported in Fitzroy, Kainec, Seo, and Spencer (2021). Participants were 26 healthy right-handed young adults (18-31 years, M = 22.42, SD = 2.9, 12 males) and 21 healthy right-handed older adults (58-75 years, M = 65.29, SD = 5.49, 11 males).…”