The Sleep-Aging-Motor Memory Triad: A Systematic Review of Task-Dependent Consolidation and Neuroplasticity

Motor learning includes a set of processes linked to practice and experience that are crucial for gaining new skills and altering behavior as time progresses. Proficiency in motor skills is crucial for maintaining autonomy and enhancing quality of life in older adults. Nonetheless, recent findings indicate that alterations in sleep patterns due to aging may greatly hinder the consolidation of motor memory, thus speeding up the decline of motor abilities. In this context, motor learning is modulated/affected not just by internal neural processes but also by the quality and organization of sleep, especially the preservation of slow-wave and REM sleep. Interruptions in these sleep stages seem to hinder the neurological changes required for enduring enhancements in motor skills. This synthesis emphasizes the importance of recognizing the relationship among sleep, aging, and sensorimotor plasticity, while suggesting effective intervention strategies like improving sleep or specific therapies to alleviate age-related motor deficits. These findings originate from a pre-registered systematic review of 21 research articles extracted from 740 sources indexed in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. We investigated these effects on motor learning and whether these effects vary by task type, complexity, sleep effect, and age. This review seeks to enhance our comprehension of age-suitable empirical studies on sleep-related motor memory consolidation among healthy groups by synthesizing results from various research projects.Keywords: Motor learning, sleep, motor-memory consolidation, aging, neuroplasticity.