Academic literature on the topic 'Spontaneous motor imagery'

Emotional contagion has been explained as arising from embodied simulation. The two most accepted theories of music-induced emotions presume a mechanism of internal mimicry: the BRECVEMA framework proposes that the melodic aspect of music elicits internal mimicry leading to the induction of basic emotions in the listener, and the Multifactorial Process Model proposes that the observation or imagination of motor expressions of the musicians elicits muscular and neural mimicry, and emotional contagion. Two behavioral studies investigated whether, and to what extent, mimicry is responsible for emotion contagion, and second, to what extent context for affective responses in the form of visual imagery moderates emotional responses. Experiment 1 tested whether emotional contagion is influenced by mimicry by manipulating explicit vocal and motor mimicry. In one condition, participants engaged in mimicry of the melodic aspects of the music by singing along with the music, and in another, participants engaged in mimicry of the musician’s gestures when producing the music, by playing along (“air guitar”-style). The experiment did not find confirmatory evidence for either hypothesized simulation mechanism, but it did provide evidence of spontaneous visual imagery consistent with the induced and perceived emotions. Experiment 2 used imagined rather than performed mimicry, but found no association between imagined motor simulation and emotional intensity. Emotional descriptions read prior to hearing the music influenced the type of perceived and induced emotions and support the prediction that visual imagery and associated semantic knowledge shape listeners’ affective experiences with music. The lack of evidence for the causal role of embodied simulation suggests that current theorization of emotion contagion by music needs refinement to reduce the role of simulation relative to other mechanisms. Evidence for induction of affective states that can be modulated by contextual and semantic associations suggests a model of emotion induction consistent with constructionist accounts.

The field of brain research has made numerous advances in the past few decades into how we learn new motor skills, from the value of sleep to the discovery of “mirror neurons,” which fire when we watch others performing movements we are attempting to learn. Accent modification may be conceptualized as a form of sensorimotor skill learning – learning to produce a set of movement components and performing them as a whole automatically in spontaneous speech. Motor skill learning occurs in stages and motor habits are formed after acquisition of the new behavior, consolidation of the new brain patterns, and automatic production in appropriate settings. New neural pathways are formed and both cortical and subcortical brain regions participate. The author of this article reviews concepts from the neuroscience literature in the field of motor skill acquisition, work which has primarily focused on the learning of arm and finger movements, and attempts to apply them in a practical manner for the clinician working with non-native English speakers. Discussed are the neurophysiology of motor skill learning, stages of habit formation, intermittent practice, sleep, feedback, mirror neurons and motor imagery. Practical suggestions are given to optimize the accent modification process for the clinician and client.

As an important paradigm of spontaneous brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), motor imagery (MI) has been widely used in the fields of neurological rehabilitation and robot control. Recently, researchers have proposed various methods for feature extraction and classification based on MI signals. The decoding model based on deep neural networks (DNNs) has attracted significant attention in the field of MI signal processing. Due to the strict requirements for subjects and experimental environments, it is difficult to collect large-scale and high-quality electroencephalogram (EEG) data. However, the performance of a deep learning model depends directly on the size of the datasets. Therefore, the decoding of MI-EEG signals based on a DNN has proven highly challenging in practice. Based on this, we investigated the performance of different data augmentation (DA) methods for the classification of MI data using a DNN. First, we transformed the time series signals into spectrogram images using a short-time Fourier transform (STFT). Then, we evaluated and compared the performance of different DA methods for this spectrogram data. Next, we developed a convolutional neural network (CNN) to classify the MI signals and compared the classification performance of after DA. The Fréchet inception distance (FID) was used to evaluate the quality of the generated data (GD) and the classification accuracy, and mean kappa values were used to explore the best CNN-DA method. In addition, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and paired t-tests were used to assess the significance of the results. The results showed that the deep convolutional generative adversarial network (DCGAN) provided better augmentation performance than traditional DA methods: geometric transformation (GT), autoencoder (AE), and variational autoencoder (VAE) (p < 0.01). Public datasets of the BCI competition IV (datasets 1 and 2b) were used to verify the classification performance. Improvements in the classification accuracies of 17% and 21% (p < 0.01) were observed after DA for the two datasets. In addition, the hybrid network CNN-DCGAN outperformed the other classification methods, with average kappa values of 0.564 and 0.677 for the two datasets.

Visual imagery is a basic form of cognition central to activities such as problem solving or creative thinking. Phenomena such as mental rotation, in which mental images undergo spatial transformations, and motion imagery, in which we imagine objects in motion, are very elusive. For example, although several aspects of visual imagery and mental rotation have been reconstructed through mental chronometry, their instantaneous evolution has never been directly observed. We paired mental chronometry to eye movement recording in subjects performing a visuospatial mental rotation task and an instructed circular motion imagery task. In both tasks, sequences of spontaneous saccades formed curved trajectories with a regular spatio-temporal evolution. In the visuospatial mental rotation task, saccadic amplitude decreased progressively within each sequence, resulting in an average gaze rotation with a bell-shaped asymmetrical angular velocity profile whose peak and mean increased with the amount of the to-be-performed rotation, as in reaching movements. In the second task, the average gaze rotation reproduced faithfully the to-be-imagined constant-velocity circular motion, thus excluding important distortions in the oculomotor performance. These findings show for the first time the instantaneous spatio-temporal evolution of mental rotation and motion imagery. Moreover, the fact that visuospatial mental rotation is modeled as a reaching act suggests that reaching pertains to the realm of visuospatial thinking, rather than being restricted to the motor domain. This approach based on eye movement recording can be profitably coupled to methods such as event-related potentials, transcranial magnetic stimulation, or functional magnetic resonance to study the precise neuronal dynamics associated with an ongoing mental activity.

Abstract Background and aims Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) often recovers spontaneously within the first year, but when it becomes chronic, available rehabilitative therapies (pharmacological management, physiotherapy, and psychological intervention) have limited effectiveness. This study examined the effect of a 12-week intensive outpatient rehabilitation on pain relief and function in chronic CRPS patients. Rehabilitation program included memantine and morphine treatment (added to patient’s prior pain medication) and concurrent psychological and physiotherapeutic intervention. Primary outcome measure was a change in CRPS symptom count and secondary outcomes were motor performance, psychological factors, pain intensity, and quality of life. Methods Ten patients with chronic upper limb CRPS I (median 2.9 years, range 8 months to 12 years) were recruited to the study and were assessed before and after the intervention. Hand motor function of the patients was evaluated by an independent physiotherapist. There were standardized questionnaires for depression, pain anxiety, pain acceptance, quality of life, and CRPS symptom count. In addition, psychological factors were evaluated by a semi-structured interview. Severity of experienced pain was rated at movement and at rest. In addition, a video experiment of a hand action observation was conducted pre- and post-intervention to study possible change in neuronal maladaptation. Intervention consisted of pharmacological, psychological and physiotherapeutic treatment. First, 10 mg daily morphine was started and increased gradually to 30 mg daily, if tolerated. After 30 mg/day or tolerated dose of morphine was achieved, 5 mg daily memantine was started and increased gradually to 40 mg, if tolerated. Psychological intervention consisted of weekly group sessions, using cognitive and behavioral methods (relaxation, behavioral activation, and exposure) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and daily home practice. Physiotherapeutic intervention consisted of graded motor imagery and physiotherapy exercises with weekly group sessions and/or individual guidance by the physiotherapist, and individual exercise of the affected upper limb. Results Multimodal intensive intervention resulted in significant decrease in CRPS symptom count. The effect was strongest in motor and trophic symptoms (19% decrease after intervention) and in sensory symptoms (18% decrease). Additionally, improvement was seen in some, but not all, secondary outcomes (movement pain, motor symptoms, change in perceptions during video experiment of hand actions, and summary index with motor functioning, pain, and psychological factors). There were no dropouts. Conclusions Intensive 12-week multimodal intervention reduced some CRPS symptoms but was not sufficient to alter patients’ rest pain, distress, or quality of life. Implications These results support the efficacy of an interdisciplinary rehabilitation program for pain and function in chronic CRPS patients. After intervention, some CRPS symptoms reduced and function improved, but distress and quality of life were unchanged. This may be due to the relatively short duration of this program; to delayed effects; to particular cognitive problems of CPRS patients; and/or to low distress levels at baseline that make statistically significant reduction less likely.

Background. In recent decades, musicology has demonstrated a steady interest not only in the grammar of the musical language, in the structural-logical side of the musical form, but also in the associative-figurative plan of music. The latter is increasingly becoming the subject of not only spontaneously-intuitive cognition, but also of decoding and systematization. The works on musical semantics, disclosing the meanings of musical lexemes in the context of that culture, that epoch-making style, in which they originated, belong, in particular, to L. Shaimuhametova, A. Asfandiarova, I. Alekseeva, H. Baikieva, A. Hordeeva, N. Kuznetsova N. Drach, I. Stohniy, H. Taraeva, L. Kazantseva. We also need to note the numerous studies of rhetoric and symbolism in Baroque music, especially, in J. S. Bach’s works. H. Poltavtseva describes the connection of types of musical language and their perception, as well as the process of comprehension on this basis of musical imagery. The study of musical content as a new direction of scientific thought was carried out by V. Kholopova and A. Kudriashov and found its application in creating of same name training courses. The purpose of the proposed study is an attempt to describe the process of forming a figurative subtext of a musical work using the concept of “virtual”, which, despite the wide spreading in modern musicological works of various directions, still does not have an established semantic structure. At the same time, it can be fruitfully used to study many musical phenomena, including the figurative subtext of a musical work. Research methodоlogy. In this study, we rely on the previously developed by us the conceptual system of the virtual in music, in particular, on one of its components – the virtual cognitive applied to the sphere of musical semantics. We used the modeling method to reproduce the algorithm of the formation of the figurative plan of a musical work, the method of semantic analysis to reveal the meanings of musical lexemes, the analytical methods of musical theoretical disciplines for considering the musical material. The results of the research. Virtual cognitive is connected with the hidden possibilities of the musical text and the hidden semantic plans of the musical work. We define hidden musical text plans as “virtual structures”. The latter, in combination with other components of the musical composition and specific features of the perception of music, shape the complex structure of the virtual, which we consider as one of the factors in the formation of the associativefigurative plan of the musical work. In our study, we rely on the idea of both a virtual cognitive and a musical work as a sign-oriented structure that can be studied from the standpoint of the general theory of language, as well as on the statement about the dependence of the perception of the musical text on a thesaurus of a performer or a listener. In this connection, using such terminological pairs as “language-speech”, “text-context”, “denotation-connotation”, we add one more: “text-subtext”. The relation of the last two pairs, in our opinion, is a correlation: “denotation / text”, “connotation / subtext”. Connotations arise thanks to the context, in which this or that text appears and functions. Both denotations (direct meanings) and connotations (accompanying meanings constituting the area of a subtext) belong to the realm of the virtual, because: 1) the meanings of the linguistic sign are products of individual and collective consciousness; 2) contextualized meanings can be revealed to the recipient only if the latter knows the context, in which this or that sign unit originated. However, if there is not enough auditory experience, both the denotation and the hidden connotations of the text (subtext) exist only as an unrealized opportunity, that is, as virtual. We will consider as musical-speech denotations: pitch characteristics, in particular, mode and tonal, harmonic, various “types of musical language” (after H. Poltavtseva), intonational turns with fixed meanings, the virtual structures of the facture-sound level – individual coloring of sound, hidden polyphony. As connotations – the virtual structures of the composition of the dramaturgic level: numerical symbolism, hidden form-building principles, which are the expression of a certain philosophical idea. Thus, the figurative subtext of a musical work is a compound structure formed by a number of elements and processes. The substrates of this complex are: 1) the musical notation, in which the basic parameters of the sounding are fixed; 2) sounding. On this basis, the other virtual formations arise: 1) performer’s mental, audial and motor ideas about a musical work; 2) listener’s perceptions – the modes of psychosomatic activity and figurative associations that arise on their basis; 3) denotations – semantics, fixed to one or another tonalities, to intonation formulas, to rhetorical figures etc.; 4) connotations, the area of subtext, often generating by contexts, in which the text is appeared, functioned and apperceived, taking into account the recipient’s thesaurus. In the context of perception, we include not only the properties of the recipient’s thesaurus, but also the communicative situation, in which this or that work is performed / perceived. Conclusions. Consequently, another else part of the sphere of virtual cognitive is the complex structures of the virtual, which act as a factor of the formation of an associative-figurative plan of a musical work. The components of these complexes are the components of the musical language (which include the virtual structures of the musical text, especially the factural and syntactic levels) in conjunction with the individual characteristics of perception due to the context of the communicative situation, the capacity and the nature of recipient’s thesaurus – a kind of filter, through which the meaning goes filling those or other musical constructions. The prospects for further research on virtual cognitive in the field of musical semantics provide for a more detailed and multidimensional consideration of the complex structures of the virtual in musical texts of different historical eras and styles.

Abstract Background Motor imagery (MI) has been successfully applied in neurological rehabilitation. Little is known about the spontaneous selection of the MI perspectives in patients with sensorimotor impairments. What perspective is selected: internal (first-person view), or external (third-person view)? The aim was to evaluate the MI perspective preference in patients with sensorimotor impairments. Methods In a longitudinal study including four measurement sessions, 55 patients (25 stroke, 25 multiple sclerosis, 5 Parkinson’s disease; 25 females; mean age 58 ± 14 years) were included. MI ability and perspective preference in both visual and kinaesthetic imagery modalities were assessed using the Kinaesthetic and Visual Imagery Questionnaire-20 (KVIQ-20), the body rotation task (BRT), and mental chronometry (MC). Additionally, patients’ activity level was assessed. Descriptive analyses were performed regarding different age- (< 45, 45–64, > 64), activity levels (inactive, partially active, active), and KVIQ-20 movement classifications (axial, proximal, distal, upper and lower limb). A mixed-effects model was used to investiage the relationship between the primary outcome (MI perspective: internal, external) with the explanatory variables age, MI modality (visual, kinaesthetic), movement type (axial, proximal, distal), activity levels and the different assessments (KVIQ-20, BRT, MC). Results Imagery modality was not a significant predictor of perspective preference. Over the four measurement sessions, patients tended to become more consistent in their perspective selection, however, time point was not a significant predictor. Movement type was a significant predictor: imagination of distal vs. axial and proximal vs. axial movements were both associated with preference for external perspective. Patients with increased physical activity level tend to use internal imagery, however, this effect was borderline not statistically significant. Age was neither a significant precictor. Regarding the MI assessments, the KVIQ- 20 score was a significant predictor. The patients with higher test scores tend to use the external perspective. Conclusion It is recommended to evaluate the spontaneous MI perspective selection to design patient-specific MI training interventions. Distal movements (foot, finger) may be an indicator when evaluating the consistency of the MI perspective in patients with sensorimotor impairments.

Abstract Objective: A motor imagery-based brain-computer interface (MI-BCI) translates spontaneous movement intention from the brain to outside devices. MI-BCI systems based on a single modality have been widely researched in recent decades. Lately, along with the development of neuroimaging methods, multimodal MI-BCI studies that use multiple neural signals have been proposed, which are promising for enhancing the decoding accuracy of MI-BCI. Multimodal MI data contain rich common and complementary information. Effective feature representations are helpful to promote the performance of classification tasks. Thus, it is very important to explore and extract features with higher separability and robustness from the rich information in multimodal data.&#xD;Approach: In this study, a five-class motor imagery experiment was designed. Electroencephalography and functional near infrared spectroscopy data were collected simultaneously. A multimodal MI decoding neural network was proposed. In this network, to enhance the feature representation, the heterogeneous data of different modalities in the spatial dimension were aligned through the proposed spatial alignment losses. Also, the multimodal features were aligned and fused in the temporal dimension by an attention-based modality fusion module.&#xD;Main results and Significance: The collected dataset was analyzed from temporal, spatial and frequency perspectives. The results showed that the multimodal data contain visually separable motor imagery patterns. The experimental results show that the proposed decoding method achieved the highest decoding accuracy among the compared methods on the self-collected dataset and a public dataset. Ablation results show that each part of the proposed method is effective. Compared with single-modality decoding, the proposed method obtained 4.6% higher decoding accuracy on the self-collected dataset. This indicates that the proposed method can improve the performance of multimodal MI decoding. This study provides a new approach for capturing the rich information in multimodal MI data and enhancing multimodal MI-BCI decoding accuracy.&#xD;

A significant problem in brain–computer interface (BCI) research is decoding — obtaining required information from very weak noisy electroencephalograph signals and extracting considerable information from limited data. Traditional intention decoding methods, which obtain information from induced or spontaneous brain activity, have shortcomings in terms of performance, computational expense and usage burden. Here, a new methodology called prediction error decoding was used for motor imagery (MI) detection and compared with direct intention decoding. Galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) was used to induce subliminal sensory feedback between the forehead and mastoids without any burden. Prediction errors were generated between the GVS-induced sensory feedback and the MI direction. The corresponding prediction error decoding of the front/back MI task was validated. A test decoding accuracy of 77.83–78.86% (median) was achieved during GVS for every 100[Formula: see text]ms interval. A nonzero weight parameter-based channel screening (WPS) method was proposed to select channels individually and commonly during GVS. When the WPS common-selected mode was compared with the WPS individual-selected mode and a classical channel selection method based on correlation coefficients (CCS), a satisfactory decoding performance of the selected channels was observed. The results indicated the positive impact of measuring common specific channels of the BCI.

Background: RIC-therapy during sub-arachnoid hemorrhage in humans was found well tolerated. We tested the hypothesis that repeated daily RIC-therapy would improve post-ICH outcomes in mice. Methods: ICH was induced by collagenase injection into the brain of CD1 male mice (4-mo old). Mice were randomized for either once daily RIC-therapy or related sham-procedure starting 2-hours post-ICH until sacrifice. RIC-therapy post-ICH was also tested in mice pre-treated with clodronate-liposome consequently deficient in macrophage population. Laser speckle imager (LSCI) was used to detect changes in peripheral ischemia resulting from space occupying hematoma. SWI/ FLASH (T2*W) MRI was used to estimate hematoma size. Behavioral outcomes were assessed by focal deficit score and beam walk challenge. Hemoglobin content in the brain tissue by spectrophotometry, macrophage polarization with CD36 expression in peripheral blood by flowcytometry, and histopathological analyses in the brain, were also performed. Statistical significance was determined at p<0.05. Results: Even after 5-days post-ICH, peripheral cerebral ischemia was evident, which was significantly attenuated by RIC-therapy due to reduced hematoma size. Effect of RIC-therapy on hematoma resolution was abolished in the clodronate-liposome treated mice. Higher focal deficit score and impaired fine motor coordination were significantly evident in ICH mice, which was attenuated by RIC-therapy. Post-ICH increased hemoglobin content at day 5 was significantly reduced by RIC-therapy. Interestingly, repeated RIC-therapy promoted macrophage polarization towards M2 (anti-inflammatory) phenotype with increased CD36 expression. At 2-weeks post ICH, cresyl violet and Luxol-Fast blue staining showed significantly increased cell death and white matter degeneration (WMD), respectively, in the ICH mice. RIC-therapy after ICH significantly reduced the cell death and WMD in a 2-weeks follow up. Conclusion: Human subjects deficient in CD36 have impaired capability of hematoma resolution. Long-term RIC-therapy might be helpful in spontaneous hematoma resolution via increased M2-type macrophage and CD36 expression.

Motor imagery (MI) is defined as the ability to mentally rehearse a movement within working memory using a first-person perspective and without performing the action. The functional equivalence hypothesis sustains that MI has similar behavioural and neurophysiological characteristics compared to motor execution. These features have encouraged researchers and practitioners to deepen both the basic operations that underlie this mental process and the outcomes of its possible application in motor learning and rehabilitation. In this thesis we investigated the relation between the ability to generate and maintain/manipulate a motor image in mind (measured by the Movement Imagery Questionnaire-3 (MIQ-3) and the mental chronometry score, respectively), memory processes and plasticity phenomena. With this general goal, we conducted three studies on healthy young adults. In study 1 we had two aims: to (1) explore the link between the cognitive processes that occur during kinesthetic imagery and working memory; (2) and to understand how kinesthetic imagery skills influence the pattern of EEG changes during deliberate MI, within those frequency bands associated to working memory processes (Theta, Alpha and Gamma). Thus, in 19 participants we preliminary evaluated kinesthetic imagery (MIQ-3 and the mental chronometry score) and working memory abilities (neuropsychological tests). Then, we measured the EEG correlates of the kinesthetic imagery using the same items of the MIQ-3 as stimuli. We found that high MIQ-3 scores of kinesthetic imagery were associated with a widespread increase in Alpha power that could underlie participants’ ability of maintaining a mental representation in mind thus blocking the retrieval of irrelevant information, as well as long range correlated firing related to maintenance of the relevant one. This block could reflect not only a simple exclusion but also an active inhibition of the areas not involved in the task. On the other hand, the mental chronometry score, that is the discrepancy between the actual and the imagined movement timings (a low score is interpreted as a higher ability) was negatively correlated with the central executive system performance measured by means of the Dual N-Back task. This finding was strengthened by the fact that the changes in Theta power in temporal regions, which are related to the performance of the central executive system, are correlated with the chronometry scores. Participants with a good skill decreased Theta power in these areas, where this rhythm has been implicated in the temporal sequencing of the information retrieved from memory. Moreover, the mental chronometry score was positively related to the Gamma power of the medial regions of the brain that are linked to the ability of maintaining/manipulating the information in mind. In study 2 our aims were: (1) to describe whether an acute immobilization of the dominant upper limb (~30 minutes) produces negative behavioural outcomes; (2) to study whether a mental MI practice performed 15 minutes right before the cast removal could prevent the behavioural negative outcomes that follows the acute immobilization; (3) to investigate whether the effects of the mental MI practice are correlated to the ability to generate a motor image. Thus, 48 participants were preliminarily evaluated both by means of the MIQ-3 and a choice reaction time task where they had to answer as fast and accurate as possible with the left/right hand to left/right affordances. Then, they were assigned to one of three groups: Control, Cast and Cast-MI. In the Cast and Cast-MI the right arm was immobilized. A cast adaptation period of 15 minutes was followed by a training session that the three groups performed in a different manner. The Cast performed the training responding only with the left hand to left affordances; the Cast-MI besides actually answering with the left hand to left affordances, imagined to answer with the right hand to right affordances; the Control performed the training with both hands as the pre-evaluation. After the training, the cast was removed and participants were evaluated again with the same reaction time task performed at the baseline. The results highlighted that a brief immobilization induced a negative effect on the right immobilized arm. Contrarily to our expectations, the mental MI training not only did not prevent these negative outcomes but was also detrimental for the performance of the left (not immobilized) hand, likely due to divided attention between the two hands, with a stronger focus on the immobilized right hand that could have disadvantaged the left one. Moreover, the higher the participants’ ability in generating a visual internal motor image in mind the lower the improvement of the left-hand after the MI training, possibly attributable to a better inhibition of the right motor areas non-involved in the imagery task. Finally, in study 3 we had three aims: (1) to study whether AO could induce a perceptual priming effect in the motor related areas, leading to the appearance of the spontaneous MI; (2) to study whether the occurrence of spontaneous MI during AO modifies the recall of an observed movement sequence as well as the cortical excitability of the primary motor cortex in the region that controls the observed action; (3) to study the correlation between the spontaneous and deliberate MI ability scores. We recruited 21 participants that had to lean a sequence of ball pinches that an actor performed in a video that was shown six times. During AO we collected participants’ eye position and the motor evoked potentials in the muscles both involved (APB and FDI) and not involved (ADM) in the different phases of the observed movement stimulating their primary motor cortex by means of the TMS. After the AO trials, we asked participants to recall the observed motor sequence, to report whether they engaged in MI during AO and to give a rate of this experience using the Likert-type scale of the MIQ-3. Subsequently, participants had to deliberately imagine the movement previously observed giving again a rate by means of the same Likert-type scale used for the spontaneous MI. This protocol was repeated in two conditions: with and without the application of an attentional constraint during the AO trials that directed participants’ attention on the target of the movement (the ball). We found that AO exerted a sort of perceptual priming on the motor regions inducing spontaneous MI in both conditions. When we did not place the attentional constraint, participants not only reported higher score of spontaneous MI quality compared to the other condition but they also had small motor evoked potentials. In contrast, the attentional constraint enhanced the corticospinal excitability of spontaneous motor imagers. It is likely that the visual guide organized in time and space the mental activity during AO and attenuated the quality of spontaneous MI that, in this condition, did not appear to be related to the homologous score of deliberate MI.The evidences that emerged from these studies have relevant implications both in research and applied field, like motor learning and rehabilitation. The neurocognitive characteristics (EEG and Dual N-Back scores) that underlie the MI process highlighted in study 1, could be useful both in the assessment and in the mental training of MI skills. The brief immobilization paradigm that we tested in study 2, could be a fast and easy research method to study the behavioural outcomes of cortical plasticity phenomena linked to limb immobilization. In the same study, we discouraged the concurrent use of a mental and a physical practice that involves the different hands. Also, we underlined the scarce effects of the former in counteracting the negative behavioural outcomes of a brief immobilization. Finally, in study 3 we suggested a simple method that professionals could use to control the possible detrimental effects of spontaneous MI during AO, that is the application of an attentional constraint that guides participants AO experience.

This chapter discusses how the self emerges in the brain through the body and bodily actions. In terms of minimal selfhood, self-representation has two aspects: sense of body ownership and sense of agency over action. In the rubber hand illusion paradigm, multisensory and sensorimotor signals induce illusory ownership over a fake hand. Studies in healthy adults suggest a cross-referenced relationship between body and action as a mechanism of the self-representation. Specifically, one’s own hand can spontaneously move towards the fake hand due to illusory ownership, suggesting a body-to-action relationship. In contrast, an object which is moving synchronously with one’s hand can entail a sense of body ownership as well as a sense of agency, suggesting an action-to-body relationship. The chapter also discusses developmental and clinical perspectives. Immature self-recognition and body part localization in children suggest a prerequisite of representations of the self and body. Although such representations can deteriorate due to damage to the body and brain, amputees can incorporate phantom limb and prosthesis into their body representation through visuo-motor rehabilitation, regaining senses of ownership and agency over these limbs once again. The chapter proposes generation-loss-regeneration dynamism in self-representation originating from the cross-referenced body and action.