背景:最近的证据表明,人类的海马重播支持在清醒时期与任务练习交错的快速运动记忆巩固。
目的:这项研究的目的是测试这种再激活模式是否可以通过实验干预来调节,进而影响快速巩固。我们假设通过前额叶皮层针对海马和纹状体网络的非侵入性脑刺激会影响大脑的再激活和运动记忆巩固的快速形成。
方法:在功能磁共振成像(fMRI)扫描仪中学习运动序列任务之前,将Theta爆发刺激应用于与年轻健康参与者的海马和纹状体功能性连接的前额叶集群。分析了在任务实践和交错的休息时期期间获得的神经成像数据,以全面表征刺激对支持快速运动记忆巩固的神经过程的影响。
结果:我们的结果共同表明,与对照相比,前额叶皮层的theta爆发刺激阻碍了快速运动记忆的巩固。来自fMRI数据的单变量和多变量分析的融合证据表明,在练习间休息期间,主动刺激破坏了海马和尾状反应,推测在微离线整合事件期间改变了与学习相关的模式的重新激活。最后,刺激改变了大脑和快速巩固过程的行为标记之间的联系。
结论:这些结果表明,通过前额叶皮层靶向脑深部区域的刺激可用于调节人脑中海马和纹状体的再激活,并影响运动记忆的巩固。
Recent evidence suggests that hippocampal replay in humans support rapid motor memory consolidation during epochs of wakefulness interleaved with task practice.
The goal of this study was to test whether such reactivation patterns can be modulated with experimental interventions and in turn influence fast consolidation. We hypothesized that non-invasive brain stimulation targeting hippocampal and striatal networks via the prefrontal cortex would influence brain reactivation and the rapid form of motor memory consolidation.
Theta-burst stimulation was applied to a prefrontal cluster functionally connected to both the hippocampus and striatum of young healthy participants before they learned a motor sequence task in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner. Neuroimaging data acquired during task practice and the interleaved rest epochs were analyzed to comprehensively characterize the effect of stimulation on the neural processes supporting fast motor memory consolidation.
Our results collectively show that active, as compared to control, theta-burst stimulation of the prefrontal cortex hindered fast motor memory consolidation. Converging evidence from both univariate and multivariate analyses of fMRI data indicate that active stimulation disrupted hippocampal and caudate responses during inter-practice rest, presumably altering the reactivation of learning-related patterns during the micro-offline consolidation episodes. Last, stimulation altered the link between the brain and the behavioral markers of the fast consolidation process.
These results suggest that stimulation targeting deep brain regions via the prefrontal cortex can be used to modulate hippocampal and striatal reactivations in the human brain and influence motor memory consolidation.