Learning is like a beautiful dance where the steps continue even after the music stops. Just as dancers transition from one move to the next, our brain goes through cycles of plasticity and stability during both wakefulness and sleep to enhance learning. However, scientists have struggled to measure these dynamics accurately, hindering our understanding of their role in shaping learning. By focusing on procedural learning, researchers have found a new measure called the excitatory-to-inhibitory (E/I) ratio to unravel the delicate balance between plasticity and stability. This measurement has uncovered cycles of plasticity and stability that occur during wakefulness and sleep, boosting learning and safeguarding it from interference during post-training processing. It’s like the brain is fine-tuning its dance moves long after the training session ends!

Learning continues beyond the end of training. Post-training learning is supported by changes in plasticity and stability in the brain during both wakefulness and sleep. However, the lack of a unified measure for assessing plasticity and stability dynamics during training and post-training periods has limited our understanding of how these dynamics shape learning. Focusing primarily on procedural learning, we integrate work using behavioral paradigms and a recently developed measure, the excitatory-to-inhibitory (E/I) ratio, to explore the delicate balance between plasticity and stability and its relationship to post-training learning. This reveals plasticity–stability cycles during both wakefulness and sleep that enhance learning and protect it from new learning during post-training processing.

Read Full Article (External Site)