Differential Effects of a Nap on Motor Sequence Learning-Related Functional Connectivity Between Young and Older Adults

In older adults, motor sequence learning (MSL) is largely intact. However, consolidation of newly learned motor sequences is impaired compared to younger adults, and there is evidence that brain areas supporting enhanced consolidation via sleep degrade with age. It is known that brain activity in hippocampal–cortical–striatal areas is important for sleep-dependent, off-line consolidation of motor-sequences. Yet, the intricacies of how both age and sleep alter communication within this network of brain areas, which facilitate consolidation, are not known. In this study, 37 young (age 20–35) and 49 older individuals (age 55–75) underwent resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) before and after training on a MSL task as well as after either a nap or a period of awake rest. Young participants who napped showed strengthening of functional connectivity (FC) between motor, striatal, and hippocampal areas, compared to older subjects regardless of sleep condition. Follow-up analyses revealed this effect was driven by younger participants who showed an increase in FC between striatum and motor cortices, as well as older participants who showed decreased FC between the hippocampus, striatum, and precuneus. Therefore, different effects of sleep were observed in younger vs. older participants, where young participants primarily showed increased communication in the striatal-motor areas, while older participants showed decreases in key nodes of the default mode network and striatum. Performance gains correlated with FC changes in young adults, and this association was much greater in participants who napped compared to those who stayed awake. Performance gains also correlated with FC changes in older adults, but only in those who napped. This study reveals that, while there is no evidence of time-dependent forgetting/deterioration of performance, older adults exhibit a completely different pattern of FC changes during consolidation compared to younger adults, and lose the benefit that sleep affords to memory consolidation.