Rozengurt Roman, Barnea Anat, Uchida Sunao, Levy Daniel A
Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology and Sagol Unit for Applied Neuroscience, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Herzliya, Israel.
Biokeshev Clinic, Givat Haim Ichud, Israel.
Psychophysiology. 2016 Jul;53(7):965-73. doi: 10.1111/psyp.12656. Epub 2016 Apr 15.
Procedural learning is subject to consolidation processes believed to depend on the modulation of functional connections involved in representing the acquired skill. While sleep provides the most commonly studied framework for such consolidation processes, posttraining modulation of oscillatory brain activity may also impact on plasticity processes. Under the hypothesis that consolidation of motor learning is associated with theta band activity, we used EEG neurofeedback (NFB) to enable participants to selectively increase either theta or beta power in their EEG spectra following the acquisition phase of motor sequence learning. We tested performance on a motor task before and after training, right after the NFB session to assess immediate NFB effects, 1 day after NFB to assess interaction between NFB effects and overnight sleep-dependent stabilization, and 1 week after the initial session, to assess the effects of NFB on long-term stabilization of motor training. We also explored the extent of the influence of single-electrode NFB on EEG recorded across the scalp. Results revealed a significantly greater improvement in performance immediately after NFB in the theta group than in the beta group. This effect continued for testing up to 1 week following training. Across participants, post-NFB improvement correlated positively with theta/beta ratio change achieved during NFB. Additionally, NFB was found to cause widespread band-power modulation beyond the electrode used for feedback. Thus, upregulating postlearning theta power may yield contributions to the immediate performance and subsequent consolidation of an acquired motor skill.
程序性学习受制于巩固过程，据信该过程依赖于对表征所习得技能的功能连接的调节。虽然睡眠为这类巩固过程提供了最常被研究的框架，但训练后振荡性脑活动的调节也可能影响可塑性过程。基于运动学习的巩固与theta频段活动相关的假设，我们使用脑电图神经反馈（NFB），使参与者在运动序列学习的习得阶段之后，能够选择性地增加其脑电图频谱中的theta或beta功率。我们在训练前后、紧接NFB训练后的测试中评估即时NFB效应，在NFB训练后1天评估NFB效应与夜间睡眠依赖性稳定化之间的相互作用，以及在初次训练后1周评估NFB对运动训练长期稳定化的影响。我们还探究了单电极NFB对头皮脑电图记录的影响程度。结果显示，theta组在NFB训练后立即表现出比beta组显著更大的性能提升。这种效应在训练后长达1周的测试中持续存在。在所有参与者中，NFB训练后的性能提升与NFB训练期间theta/beta比值的变化呈正相关。此外，发现NFB会导致除反馈所用电极之外的广泛频段功率调制。因此，上调学习后的theta功率可能有助于即时表现以及所习得运动技能的后续巩固。
