Offline contributions to early skill learning

Memory consolidation is a critical process in learning, with new information and skills strengthened 'offline' during periods of rest. Research has typically investigated consolidation over hours-days, but recent work has identified rapid consolidation across a scale of seconds, termed 'micro-consolidation'. Behaviourally, micro-consolidation has been interrogated through manipulations of rest/practice duration, sequence task paradigms, and the addition of interference or dual tasking. The relative online and offline contributions to learning depend on the nature/demands of the task and may be influenced by attention, 'reactive inhibition', and fatigue effects. Evidence of hippocampal neural replay and offline beta oscillatory activity in frontoparietal networks provides strong support for a micro-consolidation mechanism and is incompatible with alternative interpretations of the observed behaviour.