Practice of mental protocols used in rehabilitation of patients with Parkinson’s disease: a systematic review

Abstract

The Mental Practice (MP) consists of a training method by which a given specific motor act is cognitively reproduced internally and repeated with the intention of promoting learning or improvement of motor skills, without inducing any real movement. The results of MP to research in Parkinson’s disease are still ambiguous due to various reasons such as the diversity of the intervention protocols. The MP with intervention protocols are cognitively complex and challenging presenting variations in its application concerning the type of PM, task/movement to be imagined and type of instruction. Objective: The study aimed to investigate the literature MPs protocols used for motor rehabilitation of individuals with Parkinson’s disease. Methods: The searches of this systematic review was performed on the portals databases: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Medicine. The descriptors were: (“mental practice” or “engine imagery” or “imagery training” and “Parkinson”). Results: 128 articles were found, of which only 4 were included according to the eligibility criteria. Conclusion: The protocols that have proven to be effective for reducing bradykinesia, improving mobility and gait speed used the MP combined with physical practice in 12 sessions, of 5 to 30 minutes, visual or visual and kinesthetic imagery of specific activities and used gait videos of patients or healthy subjects promote familiarization and identification of kinematic components of the movement