Learning, maintaining, and altering a move pattern with motor simulation

Abstract

Learning a new move, maintaining a previously mastered move during a temporary motor immobilization, or altering a move pattern to increase its efficacy are situations that anybody can encounter. One means to help individuals handle these situations successfully is the use of motor simulation in combination or not with physical practice. Generally, the simulation process is conceived as a conscious reactivation of previously executed actions stored in memory [1] . More simply, one is engaged in a motor simulation process when the action is imaged (imaged action), when the action is observed (observed action) or when it is verbally described silently or aloud (verbalized action). First, over the past twenty years, neuroimaging technological developments have allowed to show that move simulation, i.e. imaged and observed actions, and its actual execution activate common cortical areas including motor and somatosensorial areas [2] . Very recently, research has also demonstrated the existence of a neuronal equivalence between a verbalized action and an executed action ( [3] for a review) but also between a verbalized action, a simulated action (imaged action or observed action) and a mimed action [4] , [5] . Second, peripheral somatosensory feedback has been shown to be a prerequisite for the access and maintenance of motor representations [6] . In the absence of such peripheral sensations, motor representations are supposed to fade and may be no longer reachable. Consequently, it is fair to examine the possibility of generating sensations without concomitantly performing actual movements, for instance by using motor simulation. Many common cortical areas are activated both during simulation and execution of movements. Should motor simulation produce peripheral sensations, we could therefore claim that when practicing motor simulation, we are partly training for the actual execution of movements.