Using motor imagery practice for improving motor performance - A review.

Motor imagery practice is a current trend, but there is a need for a systematic integration of neuroscientific advances in the field. In this review, we describe the technique of motor imagery practice and its neural representation, considering different fields of application. The current practice of individualized motor imagery practice schemes often lacks systematization and is mostly based on experience.

Multimodal Sensory-Spatial Integration and Retrieval of Trained Motor Patterns for Body Coordination in Musicians and Dancers.

Dancers and musicians are experts in spatial and temporal processing, which allows them to coordinate movement with music. This high-level processing has been associated with structural and functional adaptation of the brain for high performance sensorimotor integration. For these integration processes, adaptation does not only take place in primary and secondary sensory and motor areas but also in tertiary brain areas, such as the lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC) and the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), providing vital resources for highly specialized performance.

Cerebral plasticity as the basis for upper limb recovery following brain damage.

Neural plasticity is the basis for an adaptation process of functional and structural characteristics of the nervous system in response to a changing environment. However, changes during training in healthy volunteers are only partially comparable to that observed in patients with circumscribed lesions. Pathologies can even be associated with maladaptive plasticity.

Priming Hand Motor Training with Repetitive Stimulation of the Fingertips; Performance Gain and Functional Imaging of Training Effects.

Background: Application of repetitive electrical stimulation (rES) of the fingers has been shown to improve tactile perception and sensorimotor performance in healthy individuals.

Objective: To increase motor performance by priming the effects of active motor training (arm ability training; AAT) using rES.

Methods: We compared the performance gain for the training increase of the averaged AAT tasks of both hands in two groups of strongly right-handed healthy volunteers.

Effects of combining 2 weeks of passive sensory stimulation with active hand motor training in healthy adults.

The gold standard to acquire motor skills is through intensive training and practicing. Recent studies have demonstrated that behavioral gains can also be acquired by mere exposure to repetitive sensory stimulation to drive the plasticity processes. Single application of repetitive electric stimulation (rES) of the fingers has been shown to improve tactile perception in young adults as well as sensorimotor performance in healthy elderly individuals.