Numerous studies provide evidence that motor skill acquisition is associated with dynamic changes in cortical and subcortical regions. Athletes are a professional population who are engaged in extensive motor training for long periods. However, the neural substrates of extreme level motor performance have not been clarified. We used kinesthetic imagery task to induce the mental representation o...

We examined if physical exercise interventions were effective to reduce cognitive brain resources recruited while performing motor control tasks in older adults. Forty-three older adults (63-79 years of age) participated in either a walking (n = 17) or a motor coordination (n = 15) intervention (1 year, 3 times per week) or were assigned to a control group (n = 11) doing relaxation and stretchi...

Background. Imagery ability is one of the most potent factors influencing imagery effectiveness. Therefore, prior to imagery training, it is important to assess the participant’s imagery ability, typically using a self-report questionnaire. Objectives. This study examined the factorial validity and internal consistency of the Malaysian adapted SIAQ using confirmatory factor analysis and Cronba...

We are able to extract detailed information from mental images that we were not explicitly aware of during encoding. For example, we can discover a new figure when we rotate a previously seen image in our mind. However, such discoveries are not "really" new but just new "interpretations." In two recent publications, we have shown that mental imagery can lead to perceptual learning (Tartaglia et...

Perceptual learning can occur when stimuli are only imagined, i.e., without proper stimulus presentation. For example, perceptual learning improved bisection discrimination when only the two outer lines of the bisection stimulus were presented and the central line had to be imagined. Performance improved also with other static stimuli. In non-learning imagery experiments, imagining static stimu...

This study implemented a systematic user-centered training protocol for a 4-class brain-computer interface (BCI). The goal was to optimize the BCI individually in order to achieve high performance within few sessions for all users. Eight able-bodied volunteers, who were initially naïve to the use of a BCI, participated in 10 sessions over a period of about 5 weeks. In an initial screening sessi...

To study spinal neuron function during relaxation imagery, we analyzed F-waves of the left thenar muscles in 15 healthy subjects (9 males, 6 females; mean age, 27.9 ± 9.2 years) after stimulating the left median nerve at the wrist. Fwaves were recorded in a resting position and during and after a 1-min period of relaxation imagery; they were recorded immediately after and at 5, 10, and 15 min a...

[Purpose] The purpose of the present study was to examine and compare the effects of proprioceptive training accompanied by motor imagery training and general proprioceptive training on the balance of stroke patients. [Subjects and Methods] Thirty-six stroke patients were randomly assigned to either an experimental group of 18 patients or a control group of 18 patients. The experimental group w...