Motor Skills Enhance Procedural Memory Formation and Protect against Age-Related Decline

The ability to consolidate procedural memories declines with increasing age. Prior knowledge enhances learning and memory consolidation of novel but related information in various domains. Here, we present evidence that prior motor experience-in our case piano skills-increases procedural learning and has a protective effect against age-related decline for the consolidation of novel but related manual movements. In our main experiment, we tested 128 participants with a sequential finger-tapping motor task during two sessions 24 hours apart. We observed enhanced online learning speed and offline memory consolidation for piano players. Enhanced memory consolidation was driven by a strong effect in older participants, whereas younger participants did not benefit significantly from prior piano experience. In a follow up independent control experiment, this compensatory effect of piano experience was not visible after a brief offline period of 30 minutes, hence requiring an extended consolidation window potentially involving sleep. Through a further control experiment, we rejected the possibility that the decreased effect in younger participants was caused by training saturation. We discuss our results in the context of the neurobiological schema approach and suggest that prior experience has the potential to rescue memory consolidation from age-related cognitive decline

Population biology of Trichomycterus sp. (Siluriformes, Trichomycteridae) in Passa Cinco stream, Corumbataí River sub-basin, São Paulo State, southeastern Brazil

The aim of this work was to characterise the population of Trichomycterus sp. in Passa Cinco stream, regarding length structure, sex ratio, diet and reproductive aspects, in accordance with drought and rainy season periods and longitudinal gradient, as well as to analyse its corporal condition in a temporal dimension. Six samplings were accomplished with the use of electric fishing equipment in three different sites in Passa Cinco stream, contemplating sites of order two, three and four, during the months of May, July, September and November of 2005; and January and March of 2006. Three hundred and forty one individuals were captured, composed of 203 males, 99 females and 39 immatures. The smallest captured individual, an immature, presented 28 mm of standard length and the largest, a male, 85 mm. There was not significant variation in repletion degree and accumulated fat in the visceral cavity of the individuals analysed during the considered periods. Eleven different food items were found in the stomach contents. Considering the whole sampling period, immature Diptera was a preferential item and other items were found as occasionally ingested. Spearman and Friedman tests did not find significant differences in the diet of Trichomycterus sp. in the periods and sampling sites, respectively. The average of absolute fecundity was of 73 oocytes, and the parceled type of spawning was performed. Both males and females of Trichomycterus sp. presented significant differences in their corporal conditions in the considered periods, and in the rainy season, these fishes were in better condition