Abstract
The immediate enrollment in rehabilitation program and facilitation of the excitability of spinal motor neurons are very important for post-stroke patients. We previously suggested that persistence and the F/M amplitude ratio, indicator of the excitability of spinal motor neurons, were significantly increased during MI. Thus, MI has a greater effect on the excitability of spinal motor neurons. We also indicated that the imagined muscle contraction strength may not affect the excitability of spinal motor neurons. Further, kinesthetic imagery can more facilitate the excitability of spinal motor neurons. However, longer duration of MI may not affect the excitability of spinal motor neurons. Therefore, slight imagined muscle contraction strength may be sufficient to facilitate the excitability of spinal motor neurons, and duration and strategy of imagery should be considered in neurorehabilitation.
Highlights
The excitability of the motor cortex is decreased after stroke along with damage to neural substrates, loss of sensory inputs, and disuse of the affected limb [1]
Our previous study demonstrated a significant increase of the spinal motor neurons during Motor imagery (MI) of isometric thenar muscle activity at 50% maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) [18]
The F/M amplitude ratio during MI under 10, 30, and 50% MVC for min (50% MI) conditions was significantly higher than rest (Tables 1–3)
Summary
The excitability of the motor cortex is decreased after stroke along with damage to neural substrates, loss of sensory inputs, and disuse of the affected limb [1]. The excitability of spinal motor neurons was increased linearly with muscle contraction strength [22]. If MI and ME share a common neural network, the excitability of spinal motor neurons increases linearly with imagined muscle contraction strength. We aimed to investigate the excitability of spinal motor neurons during MI at different imagined muscle contraction strength. We aimed to investigate the influence of duration of MI on the excitability of spinal motor neurons [25, 26, 47]. We investigated the influence of MI of isometric thenar muscle activity on the excitability of spinal motor neurons [18, 23–26]. Previous results indicated that the MI of thenar muscle activity at 50% MVC can increase the excitability of spinal motor neurons. We investigated that imagery strategy on the excitability of spinal motor neurons [53]
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