Internationale Zeitschrift für Physikalische Medizin und Rehabilitation
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Electroencephalography Measurement to Compare Visual and Kinesthetic Motor Imagery of Squat Vertical Jump

Bouchra Haj Hassan, Ahmad Diab, Aya kabbara and Ahmad Rifai Sarraj

Background: Motor imagery is a form of mental representation of action without any apparent movement. It can be performed in two modalities kinesthetic and visual motor imagery. Although there is ample evidence that motor imagery share many features of real action, such as the similar solicited cerebral region, it is still unknown whether visual motor imagery and kinesthetic motor imagery recruit comparable or distinct neural networks. Objective: The purpose of this study is to compare the relationship between the two imagery modalities: visual (external) and kinesthetic imagery during a complex motor task; squat vertical jump, by means of electroencephalogram brain wave activity, and to determine if these two modalities demonstrated different topographic patterns of brain activation. Method: The electroencephalography signals were acquired during sequences of MI squat vertical jump in kinesthetic and visual modalities and also in control condition. Twenty healthy subjects (10 males and 10 females) participated in this study. The event-related-potential approach to the electroencephalography data was applied to investigate where the movements-related potential in alpha power were localized. Electroencephalography alpha rhythms from the occipital and sensorimotor regions of the brain were analyzed. Results: Imagery rehearsal of motor performance result in a change of brain rhythm activity especially in alpha rhythm. Moreover, the focus of activity during kinesthetic imagery was found close to the sensorimotor area (74%), whereas visual–motor imagery produce greater relative occipital, parietal-occipital activation (75%) than sensorimotor activation (24%) . Conclusion: In summary, the present findings confirm previous studies that motor imagery can be used to produce movement-specific and locally restricted patterns of the oscillatory brain activity