What is Motor Imagery?
Before showing you Motor Imagery exercises to use in rehabilitation, let’s take a look at what is meant by the concept of Motor Imagery.
Motor Imagery is a technique used in rehabilitation and training of motor skills that involves imagination and mental visualization of physical movements. It is also known as Motor Imagination or Guided Imagination. This technique has been used in several areas, such as injury rehabilitation, improvement of sports performance and treatment of neurological disorders. It is, in short, the use of motor imagery visualization to improve movement.
It is traditionally used in sports psychology to improve the performance of athletes. Motor imagery is used in order to improve their results, thanks to the visualization of triumph. For example, we ask a golfer to be able to visualize in detail how the ball enters the golf hole, the position of his body, the force with which he makes the shot and the joy he feels at having succeeded.
Through visualization, motor regions of the brain can be activated.
Another way to look at it is that the brain is not able to distinguish fact from fiction. For this reason, imaginative testing of a task produces results similar to the actual practice of the task.
We learn by example and observation (as is the case of children with their parents or the apprentice with the teacher). The brain often replicates what it observes, sometimes even without conscious effort. Indeed, witnessing someone yawn or merely thinking about yawning can trigger the urge to do the same, can’t it?
All these principles are applied today in rehabilitation, with a therapeutic purpose, that of promoting actions and movements that the patient is currently unable to perform on his own or performs them with great difficulty.
Here are some examples of exercises to work with motor imagery in occupational therapy or physiotherapy sessions.
Exercises to work with Motor Imagery
The general process of Motor Imagery involves the patient mentally imagining and visualizing the execution of specific movements without physically performing them. During these imagery sessions, the patient is encouraged to pay attention to detail and to accurately visualize every aspect of the movement. This includes the sequence of movements, muscular effort, physical sensation and the environment in which the movement would take place.
If you visualize the incorrect movement (for example in front of a mirror or if we present you with a video recording of your performance) we are actually reinforcing it, we are influencing this same mistake to happen again.
Therefore, we have to put special intention in reinforcing positive, appropriate movements. We could use the visualization of actions: images, photographs, videos or we could perform a live modeling of the action we want to achieve in the patient.
The work should be graded and adapted to the patient’s tastes, needs and interests. For example in a patient where we are working on the habit of eating, we can invite him to recreate the circumstance in his imagination that he is enjoying his favorite dish, filling his fork, bringing it to his mouth, savoring each bite.
Imagination is unlimited, it does not need material resources and we can take advantage of it whenever we want.
Benefits of Motor Imagery in Rehabilitation
The benefits of Motor Imagery in rehabilitation include:
- Activation and strengthening of neuronal circuits related to movement.
- Improved coordination and precision of movement.
- Reduction of muscle loss during immobilization.
- Increased confidence in the ability to perform specific movements.
- Facilitation of neuroplasticity and recovery of the nervous system.
How to use inmersive virtual reality in Motor Imagery?
Virtual reality headsets allow us to work using Motor Imagery with various exercises specifically designed for rehabilitation sessions. You simply need a Meta Quest or Meta Quest 2 headset and a computer to start using this professional immersive virtual rehabilitation exercise software.
Thanks to the Rehametrics Occupational software, you will be able to:
- Recreate the correct movement, even if the patient is not able to perform it.
- Mirror therapy.
- Virtual restrictive therapy (blocking mobility or visualization of the healthy side, to promote mobility of the affected side).
All these exercise options are available in different virtual reality environments, so that they are always stimulating and fun. The professional has external control of the session, since he/she visualizes from the computer the same as the patient is seeing inside the glasses. In addition, the program performs an automatic adjustment of the difficulty, so that it is always according to the level of each patient and the exercises can be fully customized.
