Descriptive pilot study of vividness and temporal equivalence during motor imagery training after quadriplegia

Abstract

This is the first study reporting improvement in functional equivalence during an MI training program that improved tenodesis grasp in individuals with C6-C7 quadriplegia. We recommend that clinical MI programs focus primarily on vividness and suggest that feedback about movement duration could potentially improve temporal equivalence, which could in turn lead to further improvement in PP.

The Vividness of Motor Imagery Is Correlated With Corticospinal Excitability During Combined Motor Imagery and Action Observation

“…The VAS has been widely used for subjective assessment of pain (Bijur et al, 2001 ; Suso-Martí et al, 2019 ) where patients mark the degree of pain on a 100-mm horizontal line. Recently, the VAS has been used for assessing the vividness of MI (Mateo et al, 2018 ). In this study, subjects marked a location on a 100-mm horizontal line, the two ends of which were labeled “0 = none at all” and “100 = very highly vivid image,” according to the vividness of the imagery they experienced.…”

“…In these studies, as supplementary data for accuracy of results, it is considered important to show the subject’s MI ability to form and control accurate mental images of movement and the quality and vividness of their image of the motor act (Guillot and Collet, 2005 ; Sharma et al, 2006 ). In particular, the Movement Imagery Questionnaire (MIQ; Malouin et al, 2007 ), Vividness of MIQ (VMIQ; Isaac et al, 1986 ), and Kinesthetic and Visual Imagery Questionnaire (KVIQ; Malouin et al, 2007 ) are used to measure the subject’s MI ability, whereas the visual analogue scale (VAS; Mateo et al, 2018 ) and Likert scale (Ruffino et al, 2017 ) describe the subjective perception of how clear and vivid the MI was. In the present study, we defined “MI ability assessment” as that which evaluates the subject’s MI ability with a task that is different from the task to be learned in MI training.…”

Motor Imagery Practice and Cognitive Processes

“…This finding has been replicated in other sporting contexts such as golf (Williams et al, 2013b) and synchronized skating (Cumming and Ste-Marie, 2001). More recently, Mateo et al (2018) reported that a 5 week MI training program for people with quadriplegia improved self-rated aspects of their imagery experience (namely, its vividness). Unfortunately, this study was descriptive rather than experimental in nature and did not use a psychometric measure of MI ability both before and after MI training.…”

Investigating Priming Effects of Physical Practice on Motor Imagery-Induced Event-Related Desynchronization

“…Another key concept of this theory is the assumption that the mental representation of a specific movement and its actual execution involve cooperating (sub-)cortical networks in the brain (Jeannerod and Decety, 1995;Decety, 1996). Several neuroimaging studies have provided evidence supporting this theory (Lotze et al, 2002;Lacourse et al, 2005;Miller et al, 2010;Galdo-Alvarez et al, 2016;Mateo et al, 2018). Consequently, MI practice has been suggested to facilitate the acquisition of new motor skills, the improvement of already existing motor skills and the relearning of motor skills following a brain injury, such as stroke (e.g., Robin et al, 2007;Wei and Luo, 2010;Frank et al, 2014;Kraeutner et al, 2018).…”