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Temporal interference stimulation of the hippocampus modulates fast motor memory consolidation

Poster Session F - Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Xiaoxi Pan¹ (), Sophia Papagni Terrill¹, Elise Perry¹, Jet Taylor¹, Nir Grossman², Cory Inman³, Bradley Ross King¹, Genevieve Albouy¹; ¹Department of Health and Kinesiology, College of Health, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA;, ²Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK;, ³Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA;

Motor memory consolidation was long thought to be a slow process spanning hours to days but recent studies have shown evidence for a faster consolidation process occurring during short rest blocks interleaved with task practice during initial motor learning. Converging neuroimaging evidence links these different consolidation processes to hippocampal responses, however, causal evidence remains limited. Here, we addressed this knowledge gap using temporal interference stimulation (TIS), a novel noninvasive transcranial electrical stimulation approach capable of targeting deep brain regions. Twenty-three young healthy participants received hippocampus-targeted TIS with a 5-Hz envelope (Δf=5Hz) or sham (Δf=0Hz) during motor sequence learning in a counterbalanced order. Participants were distributed in two groups according to whether TIS was applied during online task practice (online-TIS, N = 12) or during short rest periods interleaved with task practice (offline-TIS, N = 11). Motor memory retention was assessed with a 24-h retest. Micro-online and micro-offline changes in performance during initial learning were computed as changes within task practice and across inter-practice rest intervals, respectively. Macro-offline changes in performance reflecting slower consolidation processes were computed across the 24h interval. We found that hippocampal - as compared to sham - stimulation applied during inter-practice rest intervals, but not during task practice, significantly increased micro-offline gains at the expense of micro-online gains (F(1,10)=7.30, p=.022, η² = .42). Online-TIS showed a trend toward reduced 24h macro-offline gains in performance (t(11)=2.02, p=.068, Cohen’s d=0.58). These findings provide causal evidence that the hippocampus is involved in motor memory consolidation at different timescales.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Skill Learning