Motor Imagery Effects on Hand Movements: Analysis of Exoskeleton Forces and EMG.

Authors

Marina E Kurgansky, Andrey V Kurgansky, Mikhail R Isaev, Irina R Fedotova, Grigory G Gabuzov, Dmitry A Bobrov, Pavel D Bobrov

Published in

Journal of motor behavior. Pages 1-14. Nov 13, 2026. Epub Nov 13, 2026.

Abstract

An important and still unresolved issue in understanding mechanisms behind motor imagery (MI) is whether the principle of functional equivalence of imagery and actual movements holds true. A strong evidence in favor of that principle would be provided if one shows that (i) a subthreshold motor activity that usually accompany MI and (ii) tuning of the motor system at the spinal and muscular level that goes along with MI are specific to the movements being imagined. We conducted an experiment in which participants were asked to kinesthetically imagine closing or opening hand while half-way in the process of MI the hand was closed or opened passively by exoskeleton to which the hand was secured. An analysis of the hand-to-exoskeleton interaction force and surface EMG during MI both prior to and after the passive movement caused by exoskeleton showed that MI was accompanied by a subthreshold movements whose direction matched that of ongoing imagery movement and magnitude increased linearly during MI. This analysis also reveals a movement-specific tuning of the motor system at the spinal and muscular level which is expressed in increasing of the myotatic reflex gain for passively stretching the agonist (but not the antagonist) muscle compatible with the imagined movement.

PMID:
43024797
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 14 Nov 2026.

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