Abstract
Motor imagery (MI) refers to the process of imagining the execution of a specific motor action without actually producing an overt movement. Two forms of MI have been distinguished: visual MI and kinesthetic MI. To distinguish between these forms of MI we employed an event related potential (ERP) study to measure interference effects induced by hand orientation manipulations in a hand laterality judgement task. We hypothesized that this manipulation should only affect kinesthetic MI but not visual MI. The ERPs elicited by rotated hand stimuli contained the classic rotation related negativity (RRN) with respect to palm view stimuli. We observed that laterally rotated stimuli led to a more marked RRN than medially rotated stimuli. This RRN effect was observed when participants had their hands positioned in either a straight (control) or an inward rotated posture, but not when their hands were positioned in an outward rotated posture. Posture effects on the ERP-RRN have not previously been studied. Apparently, a congruent hand posture (hands positioned in an outward rotated fashion) facilitates the judgement of the otherwise more demanding laterally rotated hand stimuli. These ERP findings support a kinesthetic interpretation of MI involved in solving the hand laterality judgement task. The RRN may be used as a non-invasive marker for kinesthetic MI and seems useful in revealing the covert behavior of MI in e.g. rehabilitation programs.
Highlights
Motor imagery (MI) refers to a cognitive process during which the representation of a specific motor action is internally simulated without producing an overt body movement [1,2,3,4]
The aim of the current study was to investigate the effects of hand orientation on MI using event related potential (ERP) extracted from the ongoing electroencephalogram (EEG) during an adapted version of the hand laterality judgment (HLJ) task in which hand orientation was either congruent or incongruent with presented hand stimuli
These ERP-rotation related negativity (RRN) results correspond with a 1st person kinesthetic approach in solving the HLJ task
Summary
Motor imagery (MI) refers to a cognitive process during which the representation of a specific motor action is internally simulated without producing an overt body movement [1,2,3,4]. MI is understood as a cognitive process that engages a variety of supraspinal structures, without descending activation of spinal motor neurons [5]. Interest in MI has led to the development of many experimental paradigms that attempt to capture its nature. One such paradigm is the hand laterality judgment (HLJ) task [10]
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