Many of the brain structures involved in performing real movements also have increased activity during imagined movements or during motor observation, and this could be the neural substrate underlying the effects of motor imagery in motor learning or motor rehabilitation. In the absence of any objective physiological method of measurement, it is currently impossible to be sure that the patient ...

Motor imagery is generally thought to share common mechanisms with motor execution. In the present study, we examined to what extent learning a fine motor skill by motor imagery may substitute physical practice. Learning effects were assessed by manipulating the proportion of motor execution and motor imagery trials. Additionally, learning effects were compared between participants with an expl...

Motor imagery, the 'mental rehearsal of motor acts without overt movements', involves either a visual representation (visual imagery, VI) or mental simulation of movement, associated with a kinesthetic feeling (kinetic imagery, KI). Previous brain imaging work suggests that patterns of brain activation differ when comparing execution (E) with either type of imagery but the functional connectivi...

Motor imagery plays an important role in motor control and learning. Motor imagery can be assessed on three levels: subjective experience, motor behaviour, and physiological measures. In this paper we propose a computer-aided selection test (CAST) which enables researchers to analyse the procedure of reconstructing mental representations. The two versions of the CAST (pictures vs. verbal items)...

Activation of motor-related areas has consistently been found during various motor imagery tasks and is regarded as the central mechanism generating motor imagery. However, the extent to which motor execution and imagery share neural substrates remains controversial. We examined brain activity during preparation for and execution of physical or mental finger tapping. During a functional magneti...

Electroencephalography (EEG) has recently been considered for use in rehabilitation of people with motor deficits. EEG data from the motor imagery of different body movements have been used, for instance, as an EEG-based control method to send commands to rehabilitation devices that assist people to perform a variety of different motor tasks. However, it is both time and effort consuming to go ...

In the present study, we propose a neurofeedback-based motor imagery training system for EEG-based brain-computer interface (BCI). The proposed system can help individuals get the feel of motor imagery by presenting them with real-time brain activation maps on their cortex. Ten healthy participants took part in our experiment, half of whom were trained by the suggested training system and the o...

Motor imagery and motor execution share similar processes. However, only some factors that affect motor execution affect motor imagery in the same way. We investigated whether bimanual coordination constraints (parallel movements are performed slower than symmetric movements) are observed in motor imagery and whether the way of implementing the mental chronometry paradigm, which is used to inve...

This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate differences in brain activity between one group of active high jumpers and one group of high jumping novices (controls) when performing motor imagery of a high jump. It was also investigated how internal imagery training affects neural activity. The results showed that active high jumpers primarily activated motor areas...