Rocking out on the guitar is by far one of my most cherished pastimes. At the angst ridden age of 15 I picked up a cheap Ibanez strat and learned my very first Nirvana song, “Teen Spirit”. Little did I know a good night’s rest would play such a crucial role in my learning those simple power chords. Furthermore, who would’ve thought my desire to become the next grunge icon would determine the rate at which I learned during those quiet nights of sleep.
According to a study by Fischer and Born, published in the most recent journal of SLEEP, they found that anticipating a reward can determine the amount of memory consolidation during those important times of offline processing.
The authors split up 76 adult subjects (20-33) into wake and sleep groups. All subjects learned a finger sequence tapping task with their non dominant hand and all subjects except for the control groups were told that additional payment would be contingent upon their improvement after the retention interval (12 hrs).
Results showed that…[read the complete article at The Quantum Lobe Chronicles].
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