The Relationship between Motor Imagery Ability and Change of Performance

Objective. To investigate whether motor imagery ability recovers in stroke patients and to see what the relationship is between different types of imagery and motor functioning after stroke.Methods. 12 unilateral stroke patients were measured at 3 and 6 weeks poststroke on 3 mental imagery tasks. Arm-hand function was evaluated using the Utrecht Arm-Hand task and the Brunnström Fugl-Meyer Scale. Age-matched healthy individuals (N=10) were included as controls.Results. Implicit motor imagery ability and visual motor imagery ability improved significantly at 6 weeks compared to 3 weeks poststroke.Conclusion. Our study shows that motor imagery can recover in the first weeks after stroke. This indicates that a group of patients who might not be initially selected for mental practice can, still later in the rehabilitation process, participate in mental practice programs. Moreover, our study shows that mental imagery modalities can be differently affected in individual patients and over time.

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Motor imagery ability in stroke patients: the relationship between implicit and explicit motor imagery measures

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnhum.2013.00790 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Sjoerd de Vries ◽

Marga Tepper ◽

Wya Feenstra ◽

Hanneke Oosterveld ◽

Anne M. Boonstra ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Motor Imagery ◽

Imagery Ability ◽

Stroke Patients ◽

Implicit And Explicit ◽

The Relationship

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The relationship between corticospinal excitability during motor imagery and motor imagery ability

Behavioural Brain Research ◽

10.1016/j.bbr.2011.09.014 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 226 (2) ◽

pp. 369-375 ◽

Cited By ~ 79

Author(s):

Jacqueline Williams ◽

Alan J. Pearce ◽

Michela Loporto ◽

Tony Morris ◽

Paul S. Holmes

Keyword(s):

Motor Imagery ◽

Corticospinal Excitability ◽

Imagery Ability ◽

The Relationship

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Relationship between Visual and Motor Imagery

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.2466/pms.104.3.823-843 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 104 (3) ◽

pp. 823-843 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Laura P. McAvinue ◽

Ian H. Robertson

Keyword(s):

Motor Imagery ◽

Principal Components ◽

Visual Imagery ◽

Correlation Matrix ◽

Self Report ◽

Imagery Ability ◽

Self Reports ◽

Implicit Motor ◽

Components Analysis ◽

The Relationship

The relationship between visual and motor imagery was investigated by administering a battery of visual and motor imagery measures to a sample of 101 men ( n = 49) and women ( n = 52), who ranged in age from 18 to 59 ( M=34.5, SD=12.6). A principal components analysis applied to the correlation matrix indicated four underlying components, which explained 62.9% of the variance. The components were named Implicit Visual Imagery Ability, Self-report of Visual and Motor Imagery, Implicit Motor Imagery Ability, and Explicit Motor Imagery Ability. These results suggested a dissociation between visual and motor imagery although visual and motor imagery were associated as self-reports and there were correlations among particular measures.

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