Spatial constraints and cognitive fatigue affect motor imagery of walking in people with multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Motor imagery (MI) is the mental simulation of an action without any overt motor execution. Interestingly, a temporal coupling between durations of real and imagined movements, i.e., the so-called isochrony principle, has been demonstrated in healthy adults. On the contrary, anisochrony has frequently been reported in elderly subjects or those with neurological disease such as Parkinson disease or multiple sclerosis (MS). Here, we tested whether people with MS (PwMS) may have impaired MI when they imagined themselves walking on paths with different widths. When required to mentally simulate a walking movement along a constrained pathway, PwMS tended to overestimate mental movement duration with respect to actual movement duration. Interestingly, in line with previous evidence, cognitive fatigue was found to play a role in the MI of PwMS. These results suggest that investigating the relationship between cognitive fatigue and MI performances could be key to shedding new light on the motor representation of PwMS and providing critical insights into effective and tailored rehabilitative treatments.

Motor Imagery of Walking in People Living with and without Multiple Sclerosis: A Cross-Sectional Comparison of Mental Chronometry

“…Secondly, we did not examine cognitive function in the current investigation. As some researchers have suggested, cognitive fatigability may play a role in the ability to update internal models, thus negatively impacting motor imagery performance in pwMS [ 12 ]. Further research would be required to elucidate this potential relationship.…”

“…Common symptoms and limitations of people living with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) include motor and cognitive impairment [ 10 ]. Motor imagery studies seem to suggest that cognitive fatigue may adversely affect mental chronometry ability in pwMS [ 11 , 12 ], and, as some researchers have proposed, rehabilitation strategies involving MI may benefit both motor and cognitive function in this clinical population [ 13 , 14 , 15 ]. Nevertheless, only a few studies have examined the motor imagery of walking in pwMS [ 12 ], and it is still not clear to what extent MS impacts mental chronometry during walking tasks of increasing motor and cognitive difficulty (e.g., environmental hazards and dual-task).…”

“…Motor imagery studies seem to suggest that cognitive fatigue may adversely affect mental chronometry ability in pwMS [ 11 , 12 ], and, as some researchers have proposed, rehabilitation strategies involving MI may benefit both motor and cognitive function in this clinical population [ 13 , 14 , 15 ]. Nevertheless, only a few studies have examined the motor imagery of walking in pwMS [ 12 ], and it is still not clear to what extent MS impacts mental chronometry during walking tasks of increasing motor and cognitive difficulty (e.g., environmental hazards and dual-task). In addition, no studies have yet explored the relationship between motor imagery ability and measures of fall-risk and balance confidence in pwMS, both of which represent an important rehabilitation target for potential therapeutic interventions in MS [ 16 ].…”

Using Motor Imagery to Access Alternative Attentional Strategies When Navigating Environmental Boundaries to Prevent Freezing of Gait – A Perspective

“…Gait re-education and the creation of new attentional strategies through means such as MI should allow for greater retention of motor learning in people with PD ( Mirelman et al, 2013 ). MI can be mentally fatiguing ( Abbruzzese et al, 2015 ) and the authors suggest that using MI as an intervention ( Podda et al, 2020 ) should be considered on a case-by-case basis, and that an appropriate dose is considered for that individual. It may not always be an appropriate intervention with this condition.…”

Prática mental na reabilitação de disfunções neuromotoras: uma revisão integrativa

“…O uso de IM para indivíduos com disfunções neuromotoras, exige a definição de alguns desses parâmetros para se atingir a meta terapêutica e, consequentemente, ganhos funcionais. Os efeitos positivos do treinamento com IM de forma isolada não pôde ser alcançado 12 , mas a combinação de PM e PF produzem os melhores resultados 2,13,14 12,16,20 ; mobilidade funcional -marcha 1,5,14,15,17,19 ; movimentos oculares pela eletro-oculografia 18 e qualidade de vida 14 . Três dos artigos descrevem aspectos relacionados a propriedades psicométricas da IM 4,16,19 .…”