Interference effects between memory systems in the acquisition of a skill

Abstract

There is now converging evidence that the declarative memory system (hippocampus dependent) contributes to sequential motor learning in concert with the procedural memory system (striatum dependent). Because of the competition for shared neuronal resources, introducing a declarative memory task can impair learning of a new motor sequence and interference may occur during the procedural consolidation process. Here, we investigated the extent to which interference effects between memory systems are seen at the retrieval phase of skill learning. Healthy participants were assigned to a control (n = 15) or a declarative condition (n = 15) and trained on a sequence of finger movements (FOS task). Both groups showed similar improvement at the end of the practice session on the first day. Twenty-four hours later, controls were tested solely on the FOS task, while subjects in the declarative condition first engaged in a visuospatial task. Additional offline gains in performance were observed only in the control condition. The introduction of a visuospatial memory task just before retrieval of the motor skill was sufficient to eliminate these gains. This suggests that interference between procedural and declarative memory systems may also occur during subsequent motor recall. It is proposed that the interference effects are linked, in part, to the spatial nature of the motor and declarative tasks, which specifically depends upon hippocampal involvement.

Efficacy of slow oscillatory‐transcranial direct current stimulation on EEG and memory – contribution of an inter‐individual factor

“…Another plausible explanation for the differential susceptibility of the three hippocampus‐dependent tasks to so‐tDCS might be due to an interaction between all five tasks. There is evidence suggesting that the declarative (hippocampus‐dependent) and non‐declarative (procedural) memory systems function in a competitive way during acquisition, in which an impairment of one system leads to facilitation of another (Dagher et al ., ; Poldrack & Packard, ; Gagne & Cohen, ). Likewise, off‐line consolidation processes could directly interfere with each other, impairing to some degree retention (Brown & Robertson, ).…”

Sleeping on the motor engram: The multifaceted nature of sleep-related motor memory consolidation

“…Note that Section 4 of the present review mainly focuses on PSG experiments but some of the studies reported in the other sections (in particular studies using PM/AM, sleep deprivation and time variant designs) made use of questionnaires and actigraphy. during subsequent recall (Gagné and Cohen, 2016). Interpretation of data following such mixed design is therefore limited and such multiple testing should be avoided in future research.…”

Interference Effects on Procedural Memory

“…Experiment 1 attempted to replicate previous literature that establishes RI within procedural paradigms (Brashers-Krug et al, 1996;Friedman & Korman, 2016;Gagné & Cohen, 2016;Robertson et al, 2004). We used the Tower of Hanoi as the target procedural memory task (see Figure 1), because it requires learning a specific set of rules and steps (Vakil & Heled, 2016) which can be taught instead of used as a measure of problem-solving.…”

“…More recent research has shown that RI can interfere with the retrieval of a previously learned task, possibly across memory types, making it more difficult to execute the previously learned task. Gagné and Cohen (2016) used a randomized controlled trial to investigate how interference between memory systems affects skill acquisition. Participants were assigned to one of four groups, each receiving a different combination of verbal and motor interference tasks during a finger-tapping sequence learning task.…”