Mental Rehearsal Research Articles

Attention Drives Emotion: Voluntary Visual Attention Increases Perceived Emotional Intensity

Attention and emotion are fundamental psychological systems. It is well established that emotion intensifies attention. Three experiments reported here (N = 235) demonstrated the reversed causal direction: Voluntary visual attention intensifies perceived emotion. In Experiment 1, participants repeatedly directed attention toward a target object during sequential search. Participants subsequently perceived their emotional reactions to target objects as more intense than their reactions to control objects. Experiments 2 and 3 used a spatial-cuing procedure to manipulate voluntary visual attention. Spatially cued attention increased perceived emotional intensity. Participants perceived spatially cued objects as more emotionally intense than noncued objects even when participants were asked to mentally rehearse the name of noncued objects. This suggests that the intensifying effect of attention is independent of more extensive mental rehearsal. Across experiments, attended objects were perceived as more visually distinctive, which statistically mediated the effects of attention on emotional intensity.

Optimizing Exposure Therapy With Mental Rehearsal

Optimizing Exposure Therapy With Mental Rehearsal

Learning Choreography: An Investigation of Motor Imagery, Attentional Effort, and Expertise in Modern Dance.

The study of choreography in dance offers researchers an intriguing window on the relationship between expertise, imagination, and attention in the creative process of learning new movements. The present study investigated an unresolved issue in this field – namely, the effects of expertise on motor imagery (MI; or the mental rehearsal of actions without engaging in the actual movements involved) and attentional effort (as measured by pupil dilation) on dancers while they engaged in the processes of learning, performing, and imagining a dance movement. Participants were 18 female dancers (mean age = 23, SD = 5.85) comprising three experience levels (i.e., novice, intermediate and expert performers) in this field. Data comprised these participants’ MI scores as well as their pupil dilation while they learned, performed, and imagined a 15 s piece of choreography. In addition, the time taken both to perform and to imagine the choreography were recorded. Results showed no significant effect of dance expertise on MI but some differences between beginners and intermediate dancers in attentional effort (pupil dilation) at the start of the performance and the imagined movement conditions. Specifically, the beginners had the highest pupil dilation, with the experts having the second highest, while intermediates had the lowest dilation. Further analysis suggested that the novice dancers’ pupil dilation at the start of the performance may have been caused, in part, by the initial mental effort required to assess the cognitive demands of the dance task.

Efficacy of Mental Rehearsal Method for an Adult Stutterer

Efficacy of Mental Rehearsal Method for an Adult Stutterer

Mental imagery and colour cues can prevent interference between motor tasks

Motor interference can be observed when two motor tasks are learnt in subsequent order. The aim of the current study was to test two approaches potentially mitigating interference effects. The first approach used contextual colour cues requiring only little cognitive attention thus being assumed to be primarily implicit while the second, mental practice/rehearsal that demands much more active cognitive processing being considered explicit.Six groups performed a ballistic strength training immediately followed by the practice of an interfering visuomotor tracking task. Two groups received a contextual colour cue when presenting feedback about ballistic performance. During the practice of the interfering motor task, one of the two groups received the same colour cue during random trials while the other group received a different colour cue and a third control group no colour cue at all. The forth group mentally rehearsed the ballistic task during the practice of the interference task, while the respective control groups either mentally rehearsed a ramp and hold contraction instead of the ballistic task or didn’t rehearse any task. The ballistic performance was tested before and after the ballistic training and in an immediate retention test after the learning of the interfering motor task.All groups significantly increased their ballistic performance after training. After practicing the interfering motor tracking, subjects receiving the same colour cue and subjects that mentally rehearsed the ballistic task did not show significant interference effect while all other groups did. These results indicate that implicit cuing with the same cue as well as explicit mental rehearsal of the initially learnt task can help to prevent motor interference without affecting performance improvements of the second motor task.

A modeling-based narrative intervention to promote timely care-seeking in patients with acute myocardial infarction: A pilot randomized controlled trial and feasibility analysis.

Prolonged delay in seeking medical attention for acute myocardial infarction persists as a global phenomenon, which limits effective disease management. The effects of previous mass-media campaigns and psycho-educations have been minimal. This study aimed to develop a modeling-based narrative intervention, and to examine its feasibility and preliminary effects on care-seeking behavioral intention in Chinese acute myocardial infarction patients. The modeling-based narrative intervention was developed by integrating updated research evidence and participants' perspectives. Ten patients were invited to co-design the intervention. The narrative approach was adopted to engage patients in a mental rehearsal of the decision-making process through a virtual acute myocardial infarction attack experience. A pilot randomized controlled trial was adopted to examine the feasibility and preliminary effects of this intervention. A total of 67 participants were randomly allocated to receive either the modeling-based narrative intervention ( n=34) or didactic education ( n=33). The intervention was feasible and well-accepted by the participants as evidenced by high attendance and participant satisfaction. They considered the intervention as informative and interesting. The majority of the participants in the intervention group expressed that they enjoyed the intervention. Although the preliminary data showed non-significant between-group differences, a more prominent improving trend for acute myocardial infarction knowledge, care-seeking attitudes and beliefs in the intervention group were evident. This study is the first of its kind to adopt a novel narrative approach to optimize care-seeking behaviors among patients with acute myocardial infarction. The preliminary findings showed that this approach was highly feasible and accepted by patients.

Movement related sensory feedback is not necessary for learning to execute a motor skill

Sensory feedback has traditionally been considered critical for motor learning. While it has been shown that motor learning can occur in the absence of visual or somatosensory feedback, it is thought that at least one must be present. This assumption contrasts with literature demonstrating that motor imagery (MI) — the mental rehearsal of a movement — is capable of driving motor learning even though the lack of actual execution precludes sensory feedback related to movement. However, studies of MI typically employ simple tasks that do not require improvements in motor execution per se, suggesting that MI might improve task performance primarily through perceptual mechanisms. To avoid this limitation, we designed a novel motor task requiring the repeated execution of unfamiliar kinematic trajectories where learning was assessed through changes in the speed-accuracy function (SAF) across five sessions. General task performance was controlled for by assessing performance on randomly generated trajectories. Groups included physical practice (PP; with and without added visual feedback), MI, and perceptual control (PC), the latter of which only observed the trajectories. All groups performed physically on the final session. Upon the final session, the MI group performed better than the PC group, and better than initial session PP performance. These results suggest that motor learning occurred in the MI group despite the lack of sensory feedback related to the movement, and that this learning was not simply the result of perceptual learning. Our results question long-standing assumptions about MI based learning and the necessity of feedback in motor learning generally.

Развитие взглядов на взаимосвязь произвольного движения и его мысленного образа

Введение. Широко известно, что проработка двигательного навыка посредством мысленного представления способствует повышению его скоординированности и результативности. Однако образ рассматривался как гипотетическая основа произвольного движения еще до начала своего практического применения. Статья впервые представляет текущее понимание образа движения как разрешения противоречий, присущих более ранним взглядам, и рассматривает совместимость последних с современной точкой зрения, чем обосновывает необходимость пересмотра некоторых существующих рекомендаций по применению мысленного образа в спорте.
 Теоретическое обоснование. Отправной точкой в рассмотрении мысленного образа как основы произвольного движения явилась идеомоторная теория. Моторным эффектам, описанным как неконтролируемое выражение доминирующей идеи, посвящены работы Т. Лэйкока и У. Б. Карпентера. Однако их видение как проявления системной роли образа в контроле движения пришло благодаря трудам И. Ф. Гербарта, Г. Р. Лотце и Э. Харлесса. Экспериментальное подтверждение подобных явлений было получено в ряде инструментальных исследований непроизвольной двигательной активности при ее мысленном представлении, которые поддержали научный интерес к идеомоторной теории в условиях ее критики со стороны бихевиоризма. Разрешение противоречий было предложено на современном этапе М. Джиннеродом, рассматривающим двигательный образ как осознанную репрезентацию лежащих в основе соответствующего движения нейрофизиологических процессов, которая формируется при отсутствии инактивирующей обратной связи от исполнительных органов.
 Результаты и их обсуждение. Современное понимание двигательного образа фокусируется на его эквивалентности фактическому движению с точки зрения реализующих его центральных нейрофизиологических процессов и присущих ему свойств, в т. ч. формирования навыка при повторении соответствующего движения. Важную роль в двигательном обучении, особенно на начальных этапах, которую подчеркивал еще П. Ф. Лесгафт, играют когнитивный анализ движения и познание его смысловой структуры с помощью образа. При этом, как показывают исследования, когнитивные и моторные процессы тесно переплетены между собой.

Lifestyles and mindsets of Olympic, Paralympic and world champions: is an integrated approach the key to elite performance?

ObjectivesThe holy grail of any nation in the global sporting race is to better understand, replicate and sustain podium winning performances on the world stage. International sporting bodies advocate a...

Imagery of movements immediately following performance allows learning of motor skills that interfere

Motor imagery, that is the mental rehearsal of a motor skill, can lead to improvements when performing the same skill. Here we show a powerful and complementary role, in which motor imagery of different movements after actually performing a skill allows learning that is not possible without imagery. We leverage a well-studied motor learning task in which subjects reach in the presence of a dynamic (force-field) perturbation. When two opposing perturbations are presented alternately for the same physical movement, there is substantial interference, preventing any learning. However, when the same physical movement is associated with follow-through movements that differ for each perturbation, both skills can be learned. Here we show that when subjects perform the skill and only imagine the follow-through, substantial learning occurs. In contrast, without such motor imagery there was no learning. Therefore, motor imagery can have a profound effect on skill acquisition even when the imagery is not of the skill itself. Our results suggest that motor imagery may evoke different neural states for the same physical state, thereby enhancing learning.

Unpacking the Literature on Stress and Resiliency: A Narrative Review Focused on Learners in the Operating Room

The operating room is a high pressure environment for surgical trainees as they attempt to reach a high level of performance in the midst of a multitude of stressors. The purpose of this work was to examine the relationships between stress, coping, and psychological resilience and their effects on performance and learning in surgical training. A narrative review was carried out of the existing literature on stress, coping, and resilience in surgeons and surgical trainees. Multiple fields of study were examined including medical education, surgery, surgical safety, anesthesia, workplace ergonomics, and psychology. Sources of intraoperative stress include fatigue, disruptions, interpersonal conflicts, time pressure, a complex case or high risk patient, surgical errors, and surgeon temperament. These stressors can negatively impact the performance of surgeons and trainees and may inhibit learning. How a learner responds to stress in the operating room is highly variable and influenced by the context of the stress, the coping mechanisms available, and individual psychological resilience. Stress management techniques, such as mental rehearsal, are beneficial for reducing stress. Resilience is protective against stress and burnout, and resilience training is useful for reducing stress and improving mental health in physicians and medical students. Surgical trainees experience significant stress in the operating room and their experience of stress is modulated by cognitive and behavioral factors. Further research is required on the development of effective interventions to help trainees manage intraoperative stress, with the potential to improve surgical performance, learning, and patient safety.

Coding of Self and Other’s Future Choices in Dorsal Premotor Cortex during Social Interaction

Representing others' intentions is central to primate social life. We explored the role of dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) in discriminating between self and others' behavior while two male rhesus monkeys performed a non-match-to-goal task in a monkey-human paradigm. During each trial, two of four potential targets were randomly presented on the right and left parts of a screen, and the monkey or the human was required to choose the one that did not match the previously chosen target. Each agent had to monitor the other's action in order to select the correct target in that agent's own turn. We report neurons that selectively encoded the future choice of the monkey, the human agent, or both. Our findings suggest that PMd activity shows a high degree of self-other differentiation during face-to-face interactions, leading to an independent representation of what others will do instead of entailing self-centered mental rehearsal or mirror-like activities.

P069: Hardened tendencies: persistence of initial appraisals following simulation-based stress training

Introduction: Stress has been shown to impair performance during acute events. The goal of this pilot study was to investigate the effects of two simulation-based training interventions and baseline demographics (gender, age) on stress responses to simulated trauma scenarios. Methods: Sixteen (16) Emergency Medicine and Surgery residents were randomly assigned to one of two groups: Stress Inoculation Training (SIT) or Crisis Resource Management (CRM). Residents served as trauma team leaders in simulated trauma scenarios pre and post intervention. CRM training focused on non-technical skills required for effective teamwork. The SIT group focused on cognitive reappraisal, breathing and mental rehearsal. Training lasted 3 hours, involving brief didactic sessions and practice scenarios with debriefing focused on either CRM or SIT. Stress responses were measured with the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (anxiety), cognitive appraisal (degree to which a person interprets a situation as a threat or challenge) and salivary cortisol levels. Results: Because the pre-intervention stress responses were different between the two groups, the results were analyzed with stepwise regression analyses. The only significant predictor of anxiety and cortisol responses were the residents appraisal responses to that scenario, explaining 31% of the variance in anxiety and cortisol. Appraisals of the post-intervention scenarios were predicted by their appraisals of the pre-intervention scenario and gender, explaining 73% of the variance. Men were more likely than women to appraise the scenarios as threatening. There were no differences in subjective anxiety, cognitive appraisal or salivary cortisol responses as a result of either intervention. Conclusion: Male residents, as well as those who appraised an initial simulated trauma scenario as threatening, were more likely to interpret a subsequent scenario as threatening, and were more likely to have larger subjective (anxiety) and physiological (cortisol) responses a subsequent scenario. Both CRM and SIT training were not effective in overcoming initial appraisals of potentially stressful events.

Experience modulates motor imagery-based brain activity.

Whether or not brain activation during motor imagery (MI), the mental rehearsal of movement, is modulated by experience (i.e. skilled performance, achieved through long-term practice) remains unclear. Specifically, MI is generally associated with diffuse activation patterns that closely resemble novice physical performance, which may be attributable to a lack of experience with the task being imagined vs. being a distinguishing feature of MI. We sought to examine how experience modulates brain activity driven via MI, implementing a within- and between-group design to manipulate experience across tasks as well as expertise of the participants. Two groups of 'experts' (basketball/volleyball athletes) and 'novices' (recreational controls) underwent magnetoencephalography (MEG) while performing MI of four multi-articular tasks, selected to ensure that the degree of experience that participants had with each task varied. Source-level analysis was applied to MEG data and linear mixed effects modelling was conducted to examine task-related changes in activity. Within- and between-group comparisons were completed post hoc and difference maps were plotted. Brain activation patterns observed during MI of tasks for which participants had a low degree of experience were more widespread and bilateral (i.e. within-groups), with limited differences observed during MI of tasks for which participants had similar experience (i.e. between-groups). Thus, we show that brain activity during MI is modulated by experience; specifically, that novice performance is associated with the additional recruitment of regions across both hemispheres. Future investigations of the neural correlates of MI should consider prior experience when selecting the task to be performed.

Shaping Reality through Mental Rehearsal

Previous research has shown that mental rehearsal can improve performance. A new study by Vyas etal. (2018) reveals that direct modulation of neural dynamics using a brain-computer interface can also modify physical movements. The study further demonstrates that "mental practice" and physical movements share a common neural subspace.

Neural Population Dynamics Underlying Motor Learning Transfer

Covert motor learning can sometimes transfer to overt behavior. We investigated the neural mechanism underlying transfer by constructing a two-context paradigm. Subjects performed cursor movements either overtly using arm movements, or covertly via a brain-machine interface that moves the cursor based on motor cortical activity (in lieu of arm movement). These tasks helped evaluate whether and how cortical changes resulting from "covert rehearsal" affect overt performance. We found that covert learning indeed transfers to overt performance and is accompanied by systematic population-level changes in motor preparatory activity. Current models of motor cortical function ascribe motor preparation to achieving initial conditions favorable for subsequent movement-period neural dynamics. We found that covert and overt contexts share these initial conditions, and covert rehearsal manipulates them in a manner that persists across context changes, thus facilitating overt motor learning. This transfer learning mechanism might provide new insights into other covert processes like mental rehearsal.

State-of-the-art and future directions for extinction as a translational model for fear and anxiety.

Through advances in both basic and clinical scientific research, Pavlovian fear conditioning and extinction have become an exemplary translational model for understanding and treating anxiety disorders. Discoveries in associative and neurobiological mechanisms underlying extinction have informed techniques for optimizing exposure therapy that enhance the formation of inhibitory associations and their consolidation and retrieval over time and context. Strategies that enhance formation include maximizing prediction-error correction by violating expectancies, deepened extinction, occasional reinforced extinction, attentional control and removal of safety signals/behaviours. Strategies that enhance consolidation include pharmacological agonists of NMDA (i.e. d-cycloserine) and mental rehearsal. Strategies that enhance retrieval include multiple contexts, retrieval cues, and pharmacological blockade of contextual encoding. Stimulus variability and positive affect are posited to influence the formation and the retrieval of inhibitory associations. Inhibitory regulation through affect labelling is considered a complement to extinction. The translational value of extinction will be increased by more investigation of elements central to extinction itself, such as extinction generalization, and interactions with other learning processes, such as instrumental avoidance reward learning, and with other clinically relevant cognitive-emotional processes, such as self-efficacy, threat appraisal and emotion regulation, will add translational value. Moreover, framing fear extinction and related processes within a developmental context will increase their clinical relevance.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Of mice and mental health: facilitating dialogue between basic and clinical neuroscientists'.

Visual Imagery Technique in Caring for Children “Imagination is more Powerful than Knowledge”-by Albert Einstein

Visual imagery technique (VIT) some time referred as Guided therapeutic imagery, a technique in which mental health professionals help individuals in therapy focus on mental images in order to evoke feelings of relaxation, is based on the concept of mind-body connection. Mind-body connection upholds the interaction between body and mind as one important factor in a person's overall health and well-being. In guided therapeutic imagery, a person can call on mental images to improve both emotional and physical health. Nurses must learn about how to apply visual imagery technique in clinical practice for the management of physical and psychological (e.g. pain and anxiety) symptoms. Goal of VIT To manage pain, promote healing, promote relaxation and to reduce anxiety, improve mood, feel less nervous or upset, help to reach goals (such as losing weight or quitting smoking), help to prepare for an athletic event or academic achievement or for public speaking and provide a sense of empowerment or control. Types of VIT is Relaxation imagery, Healing imagery, Pain control imagery and Mental rehearsal. Steps of VIT is Phase-1: Image generation, Phase-2: Image maintenance, Phase-3: Image inspection and Phase-4: Image transformation. Two components of VIT is first components: a state of deep relaxation through breathing and muscle relaxation techniques, and Second component: Imagery or visualization component. It can be started once the person achieves the state of relaxation. Typically a therapist using this approach will provide verbal prompts to direct the focus of the imagery, often encouraging the participant to notice various sensory aspects of the scene. Some practitioners may use music as part of the technique. There are two distinct routes by which mental imagery can be generated/created within consciousness. Involuntary/Immediate perceptual information and Voluntary/Previously stored information. Child can react to VIT physiologically and psychologically. Conditions like Social phobia, Schizophrenia, Depression, Post-traumatic stress disorder, Stress, Anxiety, Grief, Relationship issues, Diminished self-care and Family and parenting issues can benefit from VIT. Present review was undertaken to know the origin of visual imagery technique, existing practices/situation/knowledge/attitude, existing problems/shortcoming, strategies to improve the situation/minimize or solve problems technique and nursing implications for visual imagery.

Perception of students and teachers about didactic teaching: A cross-sectional study

Context: Didactic (lecture) method is a popular way of delivering the information in class among teachers amidst the other multiple novel methods, but there are very few researches published related to exploring the perception of teachers and students about effective didactic teaching. Aims: The aim of this survey is to find the best way to deliver a lecture as per the opinion of students and teachers in the College of Applied Health Sciences. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional survey through a questionnaire was obtained from a previous study on medical students with original questionnaire consisting of 17 items. In addition to the 17 items in the questionnaire, 4 new items were included through a pilot study on students and teachers in the College of Applied Medical Sciences. Subjects and Methods: Students (n = 110) and teachers (n = 41) participated in the cross-sectional study. Good Teaching Questionnaire was used to obtain opinion and views about ways to make didactic teaching better and effective. Statistical Analysis Used: Nonparametric tests were used to analyze data obtained from the questionnaire. Results: Almost 100% of teachers and students agreed to include mental rehearsal and smart board method of teaching in didactic method. Nearly 100% of students and 29.2% (12) of teachers agreed to include multiple-choice questions in the lecture. Conclusions: Smart board presentation is preferred over the other modes of delivery of information. Mental rehearsal at the end of class is a useful tool to enhance learning and content retention. Teachers must implement students' suggestions such as ideal duration of class, time of class, lot of relevant examples, and little bit of fun would make learning enjoyable and effective.

Preparing for the Attack: Mitigating Risk through Routines in Armed Self-Defense

AbstractPrior research has shown that owning firearms for self-defense can be motivated by perceived risks and a desire to mitigate those risks. Keeping and carrying guns for self-defense also introduces risks to owners and others. We examine ways that consumers mitigate these latter risks. We employ theories of practice and prior work on risky consumption to interpret observational, interview, and textual data gathered from a multi-sited ethnography of consumers of handguns for self-defense. We reveal that these consumers attempt to mitigate risks in three ways: through readiness practices with guns but no assailant, simulated scenario practices incorporating simulated assailants, and mental rehearsals incorporating imagined assailants. This research contributes a model of risk mitigation in risky consumption, explicates how social norms and mental activities foster a sense of security from specific risks, and shows that collaboration is required for development of practical understanding of risk-mitigat...