Summary

This article discusses the findings of a study on the effects of reward-based training on motor learning [Abe M et al. Curr Biol 2011]. This study represents a completely new way of thinking about that subject in the context of stroke recovery. Training people under a reward-based system led to substantial long-term retention of a newly acquired motor memory—an advantage that developed through stabilization of offline memory gains in subsequent days [Abe M et al. Curr Biol 2011].