Skip to main content

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1405791
This article is part of the Research Topic Exploring Motor Imagery Across the Lifespan – Gaps Between Practical Applications and Theoretical Frameworks View all articles

Motor imagery in older adults Exploring the impact of aging on motor imagery abilities: a systematic review with metaanalysis

Provisionally accepted
José Fierro-Marrero José Fierro-Marrero 1,2Mario González-Iglesias Mario González-Iglesias 1Alberto Melis-Romeu Alberto Melis-Romeu 1Javier Andrés López-Vidal Javier Andrés López-Vidal 1Alba Paris-Alemany Alba Paris-Alemany 1,3,4*Roy La Touche Roy La Touche 1,4
  • 1 La Salle Centro Universitario, Madrid, Spain
  • 2 Faculty of Medicine, Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
  • 3 Department of Radiology, Rehabilitation and Physiotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
  • 4 Instituto de Dolor Craneofacial y Neuromusculoesquelético (INDCRAN), Madrid, Spain

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective. Explore motor imagery (MI) abilities in healthy older adults compared with healthy younger adults.A systematic review with meta-analysis.. Twenty-seven cross-sectional studies were included. Meta-analyses explored MI abilities between healthy older and younger adults for the ability to generate kinesthetic (60-70 years: g=-0.24, 95%CI=-1.61, 1.13; 70-80 years: g=-1.29, 95%CI=-2.75, 0.17), and visual modality (g=-0.08, 95%CI= -0.71, 0.86); vividness in kinesthetic (g=0.14, 95%CI=-0.13, 0.41), IV (g=0.11, 95%CI=-0.16, 0.38), and EV modalities (g=0.05, 95%CI=-0.15, 0.24); mental chronometry in timed-up and go (seconds=0.63, 95%CI=-0.02, 1.27), and linear walk (seconds=0.75, 95%CI=-0.55, 2.06); and MI-execution time congruence (performance overestimation) in linear walk (g=-0.02, 95%CI=-0.73, 0.69). Mental chronometry in upper limb movements was analysed visually in forest plot indicating tendencies of greater time in older adults. Hand recognition in hand laterality judgment task visual analysis revealed a poorer accuracy, greater response time and lower efficiency in older adults.Conclusions. Vividness of MI in kinesthetic and visual modalities appears to be preserved in older adults. Tendencies for greater time in mental chronometry were observed in older adults in TUG, linear walk and upper limb tasks. Implicit MI assessed with hand laterality showed older adults have lower accuracy, longer response times and lower efficiency. The ability to generate MI in kinesthetic and visual modalities presented imprecise results, and no clear conclusions could be drawn on MI-execution temporal congruence due to imprecision. Further research is needed to potentially clarify these findings.

    Keywords: Motor Imagery, movement imagery, Mental Representation, Aging, Ageing, Geriatrics, Systematic review, Meta-analysis

    Received: 28 Mar 2024; Accepted: 30 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Fierro-Marrero, González-Iglesias, Melis-Romeu, López-Vidal, Paris-Alemany and La Touche. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Alba Paris-Alemany, La Salle Centro Universitario, Madrid, Spain

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.