Motor imagery enhances performance beyond the imagined action
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Motor imagery is frequently utilized to improve the performance of specific target movements in sports and rehabilitation. In this study, we show that motor imagery can facilitate learning of not only the imagined target movements but also sequentially linked overt movements. Hybrid sequences comprising imagined and physically executed segments allowed participants to learn specific movement characteristics of the executed segments when they were consistently associated with specific imagined segments. Electrophysiological recordings revealed that the degree of event-related synchronization in the alpha and beta bands during a basic motor imagery task was correlated with imagery-evoked motor learning. Thus, both behavioral and neural evidence indicate that motor imagery's benefits extend beyond the imagined movements, improving performance in linked overt movements. This provides decisive evidence for the functional equivalence of imagined and overt movements and suggests applications for imagery in sports and rehabilitation.
Institutions: Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Sony Computer Science Laboratories, University of Salzburg, Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, University of Plymouth, Berlin Institute for the Foundations of Learning and Data, Technische Universität Berlin, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funder: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
OpenAlex ID: W4410345474