In this study we investigate to what extent the effects of motor imagery on postural sway are constrained by movement features and the subject's imagery ability. Twenty-three subjects were asked to imagine three movements using the kinesthetic modality: rising on tiptoes, whole-body forward reaching, and whole-body lateral reaching. After each task, subjects reported the level of imagery vividn...

Prospective memory (PM) has been found to benefit from implementation intentions (i.e., "when I see X, I will do Y"). However, to date, it is unclear whether implementation intentions must incorporate imagery in order to produce a positive effect on PM, or whether the verbal statement alone is sufficient. It is also equivocal whether the use of visual imagery alone improves PM, absent an intent...

Brain imaging studies of language processing (using fMRI) can indicate under what circumstances the embodied aspects of language representations become activated. In particular, the processing of language is distributed across a number of cortical centers, including not only classic language areas in association cortex (which might be involved in symbolic processing) , but also sensory and moto...

Separate lines of research have shown that visual memory and visual mental imagery are mediated by frontal-parietal control regions and can rely on occipital-temporal sensory regions of the brain. We used fMRI to assess the degree to which visual memory and visual mental imagery rely on the same neural substrates. During the familiarization/study phase, participants studied drawings of objects....

The present study investigated whether combining observation and imagery of an action increased corticospinal excitability over the effects of either manipulation performed alone. Corticospinal excitability was assessed by motor-evoked potentials in the biceps brachii muscle following transcranial magnetic stimulation over the motor cortex during observation, imagery or both. The action utilize...

Both motor imagery and mirror training have been used in motor rehabilitation settings to promote skill learning and plasticity. As motor imagery and mirror training are suggested to be closely linked, it was hypothesized that mirror training augmented by motor imagery would increase corticospinal excitability (CSE) significantly compared to mirror training alone. Forty-four participants were s...

Musicians use different kinds of imagery. This review focuses on kinesthetic imagery, which has been shown to be an effective complement to actively playing an instrument. However, experience in actual movement performance seems to be a requirement for a recruitment of those brain areas representing movement ideation during imagery. An internal model of movement performance might be more differ...

Mental imagery, or the ability to simulate in the mind information that is not currently perceived by the senses, has attracted considerable research interest in psychology since the early 1970's. Within the past two decades, research in this field-as in cognitive psychology more generally-has been dominated by neuroscientific methods that typically involve comparisons between imagery performan...

The current study examined the effects of performance enhancement techniques (PET's) on motor skill performance. Specifically, one hundred fifty college student volunteers (Men = 41; 27.3% and Women = 109; 72.6%) were randomly assigned to one of the nine conditions (Cond): Cond 1 and 2, simultaneous, externally verbalized self-talk or imagery (e.g., participants were instructed to say "aim, bac...