AUTHOR=Moriuchi Takefumi , Nakashima Akira , Nakamura Jiro , Anan Kimika , Nishi Keita , Matsuo Takashi , Hasegawa Takashi , Mitsunaga Wataru , Iso Naoki , Higashi Toshio TITLE=The Vividness of Motor Imagery Is Correlated With Corticospinal Excitability During Combined Motor Imagery and Action Observation JOURNAL=Frontiers in Human Neuroscience VOLUME=14 YEAR=2020 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2020.581652 DOI=10.3389/fnhum.2020.581652 ISSN=1662-5161 ABSTRACT=

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between motor imagery (MI) assessment (ability and quality) and neurophysiological assessment [transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)-induced motor-evoked potentials (MEPs)] during combined MI and action observation (AO; MI + AO). Sixteen subjects completed an MI task playing the piano with both hands, and neurophysiological assessment was performed during the MI task. The Movement Imagery Questionnaire-Revised was adopted to evaluate MI ability, while the visual analogue scale (VAS) was adopted to evaluate MI quality. A TMS pulse was delivered during the MI task, and MEPs were subsequently recorded in the abductor pollicis brevis (APB). We found a significant positive correlation between the VAS score and the TMS-induced MEPs (ρ = 0.497, p < 0.001). These findings suggest that the VAS score could potentially reflect the corticospinal excitability during MI + AO, particularly in complex MI tasks.