Institute of Sport Science

Research projects

Procedural memory consolidation in sleep

The process of memory consolidation during sleep has been widely examined in motor skill learning (e.g., Schmid et al. , 2020). Fundamentally, memories are recalled either explicitly (consciously) or implicitly (unconsciously). The respective declarative and non-declarative memories are associated with different sleep-related consolidation mechanisms (Blischke & Erlacher, 2017). Numerous studies have used various experimental approaches to demonstrate that motor memory formation is supported by different sleep stages, depending on skill level (e.g., King et al. , 2017). However, we found that the sleep-related "offline" learning gains for sport-relevant movement sequences seem to be small (Blischke et al., 2008; Erlacher & Schredl, 2006), such that specific recommendations for practice are controversial (see video). Therefore, we are currently conducting studies on learning of complex movement tasks; specifically addressing the question of the extent to which explicit and implicit memory content may have different relevance.

Selected Publications:

Blischke, K. & Erlacher, D. (2007). How sleep enhances motor learning – a review. Journal of Human Kinetics, 17, 3–14.

Blischke, K., Erlacher, D., Kresin, H., Brückner, S. & Malangré, A. (2008). Benefits of sleep in motor learning – prospects and limitations. Journal of Human Kinetics, 20, 23–36.

Erlacher, D., & Schredl, M. (2006). Effect of a motor learning task on REM sleep parameters. Sleep and Hypnosis, 8(2), 41–46.

Schmid, D., Erlacher, D., Klostermann, A., Kredel, R. & Hossner, E.-J. (2020). Sleep-dependent motor memory consolidation in healthy adults: A meta-analysis. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 118, 270–281. 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.07.028

Schredl, M. & Erlacher, D. (2010). Is sleep-dependent memory consolidation of a visuo-motor task related to dream content? International Journal of Dream Research, 3(1), 74–79. 10.11588/ijodr.2010.1.486

Literature:

King, B. R., Hoedlmoser, K., Hirschauer, F., Dolfen, N. & Albouy, G. (2017). Sleeping on the motor engram: The multifaceted nature of sleep-related motor memory consolidation. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 80(9), 1–22. 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.04.026