How breaks and fast learning belong together
Short breaks while learning are good for the brain, as the areas that were already active during practice continue their work. But this time, 20 times as fast.
Anyone learning something new, such as a musical instrument, sometimes practices for hours on end, in line with the motto «practice makes perfect.» But that doesn’t seem to be the best route to success. Apparently, the brain’s actual learning process takes place when we allow for short breaks in between. This was reported by researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health in the journal «Cell Reports». They observed that the same patterns of activity occur in the brain during the break as during the exercises – but three times as often and at 20 times the speed.
The brain researchers had 30 test subjects repeatedly type the number sequence «41324» on a computer keyboard. In a total of 36 practice sessions, each lasting ten seconds, they had to type out the key combination as quickly as possible. Each exercise session was followed by an equally long break. Meanwhile, the research team recorded their subjects’ electrical brain activity using magnetoencephalography.
Within the first eleven units, the subjects’ learning curve rose steeply. While they initially needed up to two seconds to enter the key combination correctly, they had doubled their speed after eleven practice sessions. By the last session, however, they were only able to marginally increase their pace. It was noticeable that the subjects didn’t become faster within the exercise periods. After a break, they were able to type faster than before. The learning curve was also reflected in the brain activity. After the first eleven exercise and rest sessions, the number of neuronal repetitions decreased.
The neuronal network active in this process extended over various areas of the brain such as the hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex, which are associated with learning and memory. To detect the neuronal repetitions in the brain, the team used a decoding program. They first trained this to distinguish which key was pressed based on brain activity, using the data obtained during the exercise sessions. In the next step, the decoder analysed the brain activity of the subjects during the breaks. The program searched the data for the pattern of activity it had previously learned and demonstrated that this pattern was repeated in the brain during each break. In the future, the researchers want to test whether there is a causal relationship between neuronal repetitions and successful learning in the initial phase.
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