Visuo-motor learning with combination of different rates of motor imagery and physical practice

Abstract

Sports psychology suggests that mental rehearsal facilitates physical practice in athletes and clinical rehabilitation attempts to use mental rehearsal to restore motor function in hemiplegic patients. Our aim was to examine whether mental rehearsal is equivalent to physical learning, and to determine the optimal proportions of real execution and rehearsal. Subjects were asked to grasp an object and insert it into an adapted slot. One group (G0) practiced the task only by physical execution (240 trials); three groups imagined performing the task in different rates of trials (25%, G25; 50%, G50; 75%, G75), and physically executed movements for the remaining trials; a fourth, control group imagined a visual rotation task in 75% of the trials and then performed the same motor task as the others groups. Movement time (MT) was compared for the first and last physical trials, together with other key trials, across groups. All groups learned, suggesting that mental rehearsal is equivalent to physical motor learning. More importantly, when subjects rehearsed the task for large numbers of trials (G50 and G75), the MT of the first executed trial was significantly shorter than the first executed trial in the physical group (G0), indicating that mental practice is better than no practice at all. Comparison of the first executed trial in G25, G50 and G75 with the corresponding trials in G0 (61, 121 and 181 trials), showed equivalence between mental and physical practice. At the end of training, the performance was much better with high rates of mental practice (G50/G75) compared to physical practice alone (G0), especially when the task was difficult. These findings confirm that mental rehearsal can be beneficial for motor learning and suggest that imagery might be used to supplement or partly replace physical practice in clinical rehabilitation.

Action observation and motor imagery in performance of complex movements: Evidence from EEG and kinematics analysis

“…We believe that our results of AO training being associated with a stronger cortical activation and a subsequent better motor performance, compared with MI, are not in contrast with the amount of evidence demonstrating that MI is an effective tool in motor learning [3][4][5][6]. Furthermore, MI has been reported to be associated with EEG changes similar to those observed during actual motor performance, despite the fact that observation of movement achieves a much better performance than imagery conditions [91].…”

“…Furthermore, some Movement observation [1,2], or imagery [3,4] has been proven authors suggest a similar learning effect of action observation (AO) as an effective tool in promoting motor learning. While motor and physical practice [7][8][9].…”

“…In spite of the continuous interest in investigating the role of AO and MI in motor learning [1,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][36][37][38][39], few studies directly compared the two learning strategies. Even though both approaches have been proven as effective cognitive motor learning techniques, AO seems more effective in promoting the learning of new and complex movements [40][41][42][43] [ 1,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][36][37][38][39], few studies directly compared the two learning strategies.…”

“…Even though both approaches have been proven as effective cognitive motor learning techniques, AO seems more effective in promoting the learning of new and complex movements [40][41][42][43] [ 1,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][36][37][38][39], few studies directly compared the two learning strategies. Even though both approaches have been proven as effective cognitive motor learning techniques, AO seems more effective in promoting the learning of new and complex movements [40][41][42][43], which have been recently demonstrated by behavioral [40], neurophysiological [41] and neuroimaging [11] analysis.…”

Effect of Mental Training on the Balance Control Ability of Healthy Subjects

“…Balance-related problems lead to considerable health problems and social incur services costs, because of the patient's dependence on basic functional activities 5) . In order to improve balance ability, many studies have adopted a wide range of training methods involving balance training with visual feedback, muscle strength training, plyometric, virtual reality, and mental training [6][7][8][9][10] .…”