A brief nap is beneficial for human route-learning: The role of navigation experience and EEG spectral power

Abstract

Here, we examined the effect of a daytime nap on changes in virtual maze performance across a single day. Participants either took a short nap or remained awake following training on a virtual maze task. Post-training sleep provided a clear performance benefit at later retest, but only for those participants with prior experience navigating in a three-dimensional (3D) environment. Performance improvements in experienced players were correlated with delta-rich stage 2 sleep. Complementing observations that learning-related brain activity is reiterated during post-navigation NREM sleep in rodents, the present data demonstrate that NREM sleep confers a performance advantage for spatial memory in humans.

Figure 1.

A sample screen from one location within the maze, as seen by the subject, displayed alongside a bird's-eye view layout of difficulty level 3.

Figure 2.

The effect of sleep on maze performance in Experienced (top) and Novice (bottom) game players. Performance changes are expressed as raw improvement (left) and percentage improvement (right) from last training trial. Error bars represent SEM. (ns) Nonsignificant.

Figure 3.

Performance and delta power. (Top left) Correlation between improvement from last training trial and mean delta power during stage 2 NREM in experienced players. (Bottom left) Correlation between baseline performance and mean delta power across all electrodes during stage 2 NREM sleep in experienced game players. Delta power is expressed as a percent of total power. (Right) Topographic plots depict the correlation between delta power and performance variables at individual electrodes. (○) Indicates electrode cites which retain significance after correction for multiple comparisons.