Skill Memory Expansion Shapes Micro-Scale Dynamics of Skill Learning.

Fumiaki Iwane, William Hayward, I M Dushyanthi Karunathilake, Ethan R Buch, Leonardo G Cohen

Abstract readPreprint

In one paragraph

Article in bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

0citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Fumiaki IwaneHuman Cortical Physiology and Neurorehabilitation Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20817, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-9659-4127

William HaywardHuman Cortical Physiology and Neurorehabilitation Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20817, USA.

I M Dushyanthi KarunathilakeHuman Cortical Physiology and Neurorehabilitation Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20817, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-3418-2346

Ethan R BuchHuman Cortical Physiology and Neurorehabilitation Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20817, USA.

Leonardo G CohenHuman Cortical Physiology and Neurorehabilitation Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20817, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Motor skill learning depends on refining action sequences through practice, yet how learning unfolds moment-to-moment within trials remains unclear. Here, healthy participants learned generative sequential keypress skills at different speeds. Within trials, we identified reproducible high initial skill (HIS) segments, brief epochs of elevated performance followed by decline, that emerged only during learning of repeating sequences and were absent during practice of pseudo-randomized, non-repeating sequences. HIS keypress content scaled with execution speed and increased with practice. This expansion of HIS segment content continued after overall performance plateaued. Neural analyses showed increased theta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling (

Identifiers

PMID42282788

DOI10.1101/2025.11.13.686780

PMCPMC13252200

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata

LicenceCC BY-NC-ND

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.