Analysis and Improvement of Performance through Motor Imagery Study of the Case in Artistic Gymnastics

The motor imagery is a cognitive process of mental simulation of an action in the absence of physical movement. MI was deeply investigated also by Marc Jeannerod [1]. One of the most scientist about the neurological process. He had lived between 1935 and 2011, its scientific life was entirely dedicated at neurology and neurophysiology, as well as other Scientifics about cognitive neuroscience and experimental psychology is interested. Specially, the mechanisms underpinning motor control, motor cognition is investigated by Decety in 1996, Driskel, Gallese and Rizzolatti between 1996-2012, Lafleur in 2002, Sanders in 2004. It also defined as a state of general activation during which a person feels himself to perform an action. The motor imagery should be distinguished from mental practice, the first refers to the cognitive process while, the second refers to the process of mental training that takes advantage of the first process. There are two types of motor imagery: in first-person and in third-person. In first person mode, the subject imagines himself to perform an action but not in the sense of seeing himself as an external or reflected image, in the sense to see what he would see, if he performed a movement and at the same time feel emotions, excitation, stress and changes of arousal. In third person mode, the person sees himself or another person as an external image, as with the use of a camera. The most effective for learning is that first-person. Numerous studies have shown that the performance is optimized through the cognitive process of motor imagery.