Journal article
No Enhancement of 24-Hour Visuomotor Skill Retention by Post-Practice Caffeine Administration
PLoS One, Vol.10(6), pp.e0129543-e0129543
06/08/2015
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0129543
PMCID: PMC4459824
PMID: 26053288
Abstract
Caffeine is widely consumed throughout the world and appears to indirectly facilitate learning and memory through effects on attention and motivation. Animal work indicates that post-training caffeine administration augments inhibitory avoidance memory, spatial memory, and object memory. In humans, post-training caffeine administration enhances the ability to discern between familiar images and new, similar images. However, the effect of post-training caffeine administration on motor memory has not been examined. Therefore, we tested two groups of low caffeine consumers (average weekly consumption ≤500 mg) in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study involving acquisition of a continuous isometric visuomotor tracking skill. On Day 1, subjects completed 5 blocks (150 repetitions) of training on the continuous isometric visuomotor skill and subsequently ingested either 200 mg of caffeine or placebo. On day 2, subjects completed an additional 5 blocks of training. Day 1 mean performance and performance variability were both similar between groups, suggesting that both groups acquired the motor skill similarly. For mean performance on Day 2, patterns of re-learning, mean performance learning magnitudes, mean performance learning rates, and mean performance retention magnitudes were all similar between groups. For performance variability on Day 2, there was a small trend towards increased variability in the caffeine group during re-learning, but performance variability learning magnitudes and performance variability retention magnitudes did not differ between groups. Because motor skill acquisition can also be conceptualized as a reduction in performance variability, these results suggest that there may be a small negative effect of post-practice caffeine administration on memory of a newly-learned visuomotor skill. Overall, we found no evidence to suggest that post-training caffeine administration enhances 24-hour retention of a newly-learned continuous visuomotor skill, and these results support the notion that memory-enhancing effects of post-training caffeine ingestion may be task-specific.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- No Enhancement of 24-Hour Visuomotor Skill Retention by Post-Practice Caffeine Administration
- Creators
- Sara Hussain - University of IowaKelly J Cole - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- PLoS One, Vol.10(6), pp.e0129543-e0129543
- DOI
- 10.1371/journal.pone.0129543
- PMID
- 26053288
- PMCID
- PMC4459824
- NLM abbreviation
- PLoS One
- ISSN
- 1932-6203
- eISSN
- 1932-6203
- Number of pages
- 14
- Copyright
- © 2015 Hussain, Cole.
- Grant note
- Funding for this project was provided by Graduate and Professional Student Government at the University of Iowa (http://gpsg.uiowa.edu/). This organization provides funding for graduate student research. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
- Comment
- All data files are available from DataDryad.org (doi: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.j91v7).
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 06/08/2015
- Academic Unit
- Health, Sport, and Human Physiology
- Record Identifier
- 9983557342402771
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