Relationship between imagery modality and dominant sensory modality of the task (original) (raw)
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We examined whether participants' imagery ability may contribute to lower limb position sense improvement during a kinesthetic motor imagery practice. Participants were divided into three groups (VI+KI+, VI-KI-, VI+KI-) as a function of their visual (V) and kinesthetic (K) Movement Imagery Questionnaire scores. The sign "+" indicated good imagery ability, while the sign "-" indicated poor imagery ability for each modality. Position sense accuracy was evaluated by means of a knee joint position reproduction task performed without vision before (pre-test) and after (post-tests after 10 min and 48 h) kinesthetic motor imagery practice. The results showed that high kinesthetic motor imagery abilities (VI+KI+) promoted better and more long-term performance improvement than poor kinesthetic motor imagery abilities (VI-KI-, VI+KI-). Discussion focuses on the necessity to take into account the participants' visual and kinesthetic imagery abilities to favor the development of sensory-specific movement representation following motor imagery.
Imagery ability and the acquisition and retention of movements
Memory & Cognition, 1986
In this study, we examined the relationship between imagery ability, as measured by the Movement Imagery Questionnaire (MIQ), and the acquisition, retention, and reacquisition of movements. Based on their MIQ scores, 10 subjects were selected for the following imagery groups: high visual/high kinesthetic (HH), high visualllow kinesthetic (HL), and low visualllow kinesthetic eLL). The subjects learned four movements to a criterion level. Before each trial, subjects kinesthetically imaged the movement about to be produced. Following each acquisition trial, subjects were provided visual feedback. The acquisition phase was followed by a 2-day retention interval, a retention test consisting of three trials on each movement (no feedback provided), and a reacquisition phase. The HH group acquired the movements in the least number of trials, the LL group required the greatest number of trials, and the HL group required an intermediate number of trials. The data for the reacquisition phase showed the same trend. There was only weak evidence for a relationship between imagery ability and the retention of the movements. These findings support the position that high imagery ability facilitates the acquisition, but probably not the short term retention, of movements.
The study aimed to examine whether modifying the proprioceptive feedback usually associated with a specific movement would decrease the dominance of visual feedback and/or decrease, which appears to be the neglect of proprioceptive feedback in ensuring the accuracy of goal-directed movements. We used a leg positioning recall task and measured the recall error after 15 and 165 acquisition trials performed with both vision and proprio-ception or proprioception only, under either a normal or a modified proprioception condition (i.e., with a 1-kg load attached to the participants' ankle). Participant learning was evaluated in transfer with proprioception only. In support of the specificity of practice hypothesis, the recall errors in acquisition were significantly smaller when practice occurred with both vision and proprioception, in either the loaded or the unloaded leg condition, and they increased significantly in transfer when vision was withdrawn. An important finding of the study highlighted that withdrawing vision after 165 acquisition trials had less deleterious effects on the recall errors when practice occurred under the loaded leg condition. Under that modified condition, recall errors in transfer were similar when practice occurred with and without vision, whereas larger errors were observed following practice with vision under the normal proprioceptive condition. Overall, these results highlighted the dominance of vision in ensuring accurate leg positioning recall and revealed that the dominance of vision is such that the processing of proprio-ceptive feedback may be neglected. Importantly, modifying the proprioceptive feedback has the advantage of reducing what appears to be the neglect of propriocep-tive information when movement execution occurs in a visuo-proprioceptive context. Practical considerations for rehabilitation are discussed at the end of the manuscript.
On the content of sensorimotor representations after actual and motor imagery practice
We examined the similarities between actual and motor imagery practice with regard to the development of sensorimotor representations. Participants had to reproduce knee joint positions (15 or 150 trials) in visuo-proprioceptive or proprioceptive conditions (Experiment 1) or in visual, proprioceptive or visuoproprioceptive imagery conditions (Experiment 2), before being transferred in a proprioceptive condition. A familiarization session in a proprioceptive condition was performed before imagery practice only (Experiment 2). Results showed that the effect of vision withdrawal varied according to actual or motor imagery practice: performance accuracy in transfer decreased after actual visuo-proprioceptive practice while it increased after visuo-proprioceptive imagery practice. These results suggest that different movement representations can be developed following actual or imagery practice. They also suggest that information from previous experience could be stored in a sensori-motor memory and could be fundamental for the efficiency of motor imagery practice.
Motor and Kinesthetic Imagery. In Multisensory Imagery
This chapter aims to provide an overview of the functional, physiological, and neural characteristics of motor imagery. The literature reviewed shows that motor imagery shares many characteristics with motor executions, both at a behav-ioral and a physiological level. Furthermore, functional imaging studies show that imagining a movement activates a motor network that largely overlaps with that involved when actively performing a movement. However, the involvement of the primary motor cortex in motor imagery is still under debate. The range of behavioral, physi-ological, and neural effects of motor imagery also overlap with those reported dur-ing action observation, although activation of a motor network through imagery or observation may be less extensive than during action execution, with observation perhaps providing the least activation. Thus, the idea that motor imagery evokes similar motor representations as execution of movements may be used in a range of different applicatio...