Preregistration of a study examining the influence of auditory closed-loop targeted memory reactivation during sleep on the neural correlates of motor memory consolidation.

Motor memory consolidation is the process by which labile motor memory traces become more robust. This process has been extensively studied using motor sequence learning (MSL) tasks that involve integrating the temporal structure of a series of stereotyped movements into a unitary, well-rehearsed sequence. Both the behavioral and neural correlates of motor sequence memory consolidation have been extensively characterized in young adults. Briefly, initial acquisition of a movement sequence, occurring during online practice of the task and characterized by a substantial improvement in performance, is followed by a slower phase in which smaller improvements emerge across multiple practice sessions. Importantly, the consolidation phase, occurring offline, between practice sessions, offers a privileged time window for the acquired memory to be transformed into a more stable, robust memory trace. Post-learning sleep, and specifically non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM) (Geneviève Albouy et al., 2008) (Geneviève Albouy, Fogel, et al., 2013), is known to further enhance this consolidation process. The sleep-related motor memory consolidation process has been shown to be augmented by experimental interventions referred to as targeted memory reactivation (TMR). TMR consists of replaying offline (i.e., during the consolidation period) sensory stimuli that were associated to the task during learning (Ngo et al., 2013). Auditory TMR applied during post-learning Slow Wave Sleep (SWS) has been consistently used to boost motor memory consolidation in healthy young adults (Cousins et al., 2016) (Schönauer et al., 2014). Furthermore, reinforcing the synchronization of cerebral oscillations during sleep using auditory stimuli (Ngo et al., 2015) specifically presented during SW up-states (optimal period of neuronal excitability) has been shown to optimize declarative memory consolidation ( Ngo et al., 2013) (Batterink et al., 2016) (Göldi et al., 2019). However, studies causally linking the specific phase of the SW to enhancement or impairment of memory consolidation processes are rather sparse in the declarative memory field and non-existent in the motor memory domain. Additionally, the neurophysiological processes supporting these effects are poorly understood. In this project, we will combine TMR and Closed-Loop (CL) stimulation of specific phases of SWs in order to modulate motor memory consolidation. The algorithm we will use allows precise time-locking of the stimulation to the trough and the peak of the SW. The aim of the present study is twofold. First, our design allows to causally link the different phases of the SW to consolidation processes and, second, to investigate the influence of CL-TMR on the neural correlates of motor memory using sleep electro-encephalography (EEG) recordings and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during task performance. To do so, participants will be trained, in the fMRI scanner on a motor sequence learning (MSL) task involving 3 different sequences. Each of these sequences will be associated to one specific sound during learning. During the subsequent post-learning sleep monitored with EEG, one sound will be played at the peak of the SW (reactivated-up condition), another sound will be played at the trough of the SW (reactivated-down condition) while the last sound will not be replayed (control condition). To assess consolidation, motor task performance will be retested, in the fMRI scanner, after the night episode (post-night retest).

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