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•The AnyBody™ Modeling System can create motion skill demonstration models with visualized muscle activation colors.•These demonstration models can enhance the quality of kinesthetic imagery.•The evidence supporting the enhancement of kinesthetic imagery quality is linked to selective inhibition in the frontal-central-temporal brain regions and activation in the occipital-parietal brain regions, as well as the information flow between the occipital-parietal and frontal-parietal brain areas.•These demonstration models have potential applications in fields such as neurological rehabilitation, music, and surgical practices.•These models can also be utilized in the development of online educational resources for motor skills and virtual simulation technologies. It is well established that providing visual guidance within demonstration models positively influences the quality of kinesthetic motor imagery (kMI) for complex motor skills. Given that action execution and kMI share several underlying mechanisms, we hypothesize that color-coded visual cues indicating muscle activation in demonstration models can enhance the quality of kMI in the acquisition of complex motor skills. To test this hypothesis. We employed AnyBody Modeling System to develop demonstration model videos of complex motor skills. Thirty participants (mean age = 20.3 ± 0.6 years; 7 men and 8 women per group) were assigned to an experimental group, which engaged in kMI after viewing demonstration videos supplemented with simulated muscle activation color cues, or to a control group, which performed kMI following videos without such cues. All participants scored above 5 on the Motor Imagery Questionnaire-2 (MIQ-2). The vividness of kMI was assessed using the Vividness of Motor Imagery Questionnaire-2 (VMIQ-2). A 64-channel EEG cap was utilized for data acquisition. Changes in alpha and beta range oscillations during kMI were examined, and region of interest (ROI) analysis was conducted to extract the correlation coefficient matrix among kMI-related subcortical nuclei. Our results demonstrated that the vividness of kMI in the experimental group was significantly higher than that in the control group by 19.9 % (P < 0.05). Conversely, alpha event-related synchronization (ERS) in the parietal and occipital regions, as well as ERS in the frontal, central, and temporal regions, were significantly lower in the experimental group compared to the control group. The source-functional connectivity results revealed that the primary differences between the experimental and control groups were concentrated between the left V1 and right V1, as well as among the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and primary motor cortex (M1). In conclusion, the demonstration model, which incorporates simulated muscle activation and color visualization, enhances the vividness of kMI in complex motor skills. This enhancement is associated with the selective inhibition of the frontal, central, and temporal brain regions, the activation of the occipital and parietal regions within brain rhythmic activity, and increased information flow between the occipital-parietal and frontal-parietal brain regions.

This study investigates whether the combined effect of kinesthetic motor imagery-based brain computer interface (KI-BCI) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on upper limb function in subacute stroke patients is more effective than using KI-BCI or tDCS alone. Forty-eight subacute stroke survivors were randomized to the KI-BCI, tDCS, or BCI-tDCS group. The KI-BCI group performed 30 min of KI-BCI training. Patients in tDCS group received 30 min of tDCS. Patients in BCI-tDCS group received 15 min of tDCS and 15 min of KI-BCI. The treatment cycle was five times a week, for four weeks. After all intervention, the Fugl-Meyer Assessment-Upper Extremity, Motor Status Scale, and the Modified Barthel Index scores of the KI-BCI group were superior to those of the tDCS group. The BCI-tDCS group was superior to the tDCS group in terms of the Motor Status Scale. Although quantitative EEG showed no significant group differences, the quantitative EEG indices in the tDCS group were significantly lower than before treatment. In conclusion, after treatment, although all intervention strategies improved upper limb motor function and daily living abilities in subacute stroke patients, KI-BCI demonstrated significantly better efficacy than tDCS. Under the same total treatment duration, the combined use of tDCS and KI-BCI did not achieve the hypothesized optimal outcome. Notably, tDCS reduced QEEG indices, possibly indicating favorable future outcomes in future. Trial registry number: ChiCTR2000034730.

Background Dysfunctional depressogenic cognitions are considered a key factor in the etiology and maintenance of depression. In cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), the current gold-standard psychotherapeutic treatment for depression, cognitive restructuring techniques are employed to address dysfunctional cognitions. However, high drop-out and non-response rates suggest a need to boost the efficacy of CBT for depression. This might be achieved by enhancing the role of emotional and kinesthetic (i.e., body movement perception) features of interventions. Therefore, we aim to evaluate the efficacy of a cognitive restructuring task augmented with the performance of anti-depressive facial expressions in individuals with and without depression. Further, we aim to investigate to what extent kinesthetic markers are intrinsically associated with and, hence, allow for the detection of, depression. Methods In a four-arm, parallel, single-blind, randomized controlled trial (RCT), we will randomize 128 individuals with depression and 128 matched controls without depression to one of four study conditions: (1) a cognitive reappraisal training (CR); (2) CR enhanced with instructions to display anti-depressive facial expressions (CR + AFE); (3) facial muscle training focusing on anti-depressive facial expressions (AFE); and (4) a sham control condition. One week after diagnostic assessment, a single intervention of 90–120-minute duration will be administered, with a subsequent follow-up two weeks later. Depressed mood will serve as primary outcome. Secondary outcomes will include current positive mood, symptoms of depression, current suicidality, dysfunctional attitudes, automatic thoughts, emotional state, kinesthesia (i.e., facial expression, facial muscle activity, body posture), psychophysiological measures (e.g., heart rate (variability), respiration rate (variability), verbal acoustics), as well as feasibility measures (i.e., treatment integrity, compliance, usability, acceptability). Outcomes will be analyzed with multiple methods, such as hierarchical and conventional linear models and machine learning. Discussion If shown to be feasible and effective, the inclusion of kinesthesia into both psychotherapeutic diagnostics and interventions may be a pivotal step towards the more prompt, efficient, and targeted treatment of individuals with depression. Trial registration The study was preregistered in the Open Science Framework on August 12, 2022 ( https://osf.io/mswfg/ ) and retrospectively registered in the German Clinical Trials Register on November 25, 2024. Clinical Trial Number: DRKS00035577.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of Motor Imagery (MI) training on language comprehension. In line with literature suggesting an intimate relationship between the language and the motor system, we proposed that a MI-training could improve language comprehension by facilitating lexico-semantic access. In two experiments, participants were assigned to a kinesthetic motor-imagery training (KMI) group, in which they had to imagine making upper-limb movements, or to a static visual imagery training (SVI) group, in which they had to mentally visualize pictures of landscapes. Differential impacts of both training protocols on two different language comprehension tasks (i.e., semantic categorization and sentence-picture matching task) were investigated. Experiment 1 showed that KMI training can induce better performance (shorter reaction times) than SVI training for the two language comprehension tasks, thus suggesting that a KMI-based motor activation can facilitate lexico-semantic access after only one training session. Experiment 2 aimed at replicating these results using a pre/post-training language assessment and a longer training period (four training sessions spread over four days). Although the improvement magnitude between pre- and post-training sessions was greater in the KMI group than in the SVI one on the semantic categorization task, the sentence-picture matching task tended to provide an opposite pattern of results. Overall, this series of experiments highlights for the first time that motor imagery can contribute to the improvement of lexical-semantic processing and could open new avenues on rehabilitation methods for language deficits.

This study examined developmental changes in Level-2 visual perspective taking (VPT2) in 90 children aged 4–12 years and tested the role of their ability to mentally simulate changes to their bodily locations (self-motion imagery; SMI). Performance of a mental toy rotation task and a self-motion (SM) task (changing location of children) was superior to that of VPT2 and SMI tasks. Task performance of SMI was better than that of VPT2 before 10;0 (years;months). Furthermore, egocentric responses in VPT2 and SMI tasks were significantly more frequent than those in the mental rotation and SM tasks before 10;3. These findings suggest the involvement of embodied cognitive processes in perspective taking and the advantage of utilizing bodily information by age 10.

Infants’ spontaneous and voluntary movements mirror developmental integrity of brain networks since they require coordinated activation of multiple sites in the central nervous system. Accordingly, early detection of infants with atypical motor development holds promise for recognizing those infants who are at risk for a wide range of neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., cerebral palsy, autism spectrum disorders). Previously, novel wearable technology has shown promise for offering efficient, scalable and automated methods for movement assessment in adults. Here, we describe the development of an infant wearable, a multi-sensor smart jumpsuit that allows mobile accelerometer and gyroscope data collection during movements. Using this suit, we first recorded play sessions of 22 typically developing infants of approximately 7 months of age. These data were manually annotated for infant posture and movement based on video recordings of the sessions, and using a novel annotation scheme specifically designed to assess the overall movement pattern of infants in the given age group. A machine learning algorithm, based on deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) was then trained for automatic detection of posture and movement classes using the data and annotations. Our experiments show that the setup can be used for quantitative tracking of infant movement activities with a human equivalent accuracy, i.e., it meets the human inter-rater agreement levels in infant posture and movement classification. We also quantify the ambiguity of human observers in analyzing infant movements, and propose a method for utilizing this uncertainty for performance improvements in training of the automated classifier. Comparison of different sensor configurations also shows that four-limb recording leads to the best performance in posture and movement classification.

Knee proprioception may be compromised after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR), but associated factors and impact remain unclear. This study evaluated knee proprioception 4 months after primary ACLR, compared with healthy controls, and explored the impacts of leg dominance, anterolateral procedures (AEAPs), and their association with psychological readiness to return to sports. This prospective cohort study included 30 ACLR participants and 20 healthy controls. Isokinetic testing measured knee strength and proprioception, using passive joint position sense (JPS1: detection, JPS2: repositioning) and kinesthesia (threshold to detection of passive motion). At 8 months, ACLR participants completed the ACL-RSI scale to assess psychological readiness to return to sports. At 4 months postoperative, kinesthesia was better in the operated limb than the non-operated limb (p = 0.008), but position sense did not differ significantly. There were no significant differences in kinesthesia or position sense between ACLR participants and controls. The operated limb had worse JPS2 if the ACLR was on the non-dominant side. Proprioception was unaffected by AEAPs, and only repositioning showed a moderate, non-significant correlation with ACL-RSI (r = −0.377). At 4 months post-ACLR, kinesthesia improved in the operated leg; dominance influenced position sense, highlighting the need for personalized rehabilitation. •Kinesthesia was better in the operated knee (vs. non-operated) at 4 months post-ACLR.•Surgery on the non-dominant limb significantly altered position sense symmetry post-ACLR.•AEAPs did not significantly impact knee proprioception post-ACLR.•Psychological readiness was modestly associated with knee position sense symmetry.

The understanding of neurophysiological mechanisms responsible for motor imagery (MI) is essential for the development of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) and bioprosthetics. Our magnetoencephalographic (MEG) experiments with voluntary participants confirm the existence of two types of motor imagery, kinesthetic imagery (KI) and visual imagery (VI), distinguished by activation and inhibition of different brain areas in motor-related α - and β -frequency regions. Although the brain activity corresponding to MI is usually observed in specially trained subjects or athletes, we show that it is also possible to identify particular features of MI in untrained subjects. Similar to real movement, KI implies muscular sensation when performing an imaginary moving action that leads to event-related desynchronization (ERD) of motor-associated brain rhythms. By contrast, VI refers to visualization of the corresponding action that results in event-related synchronization (ERS) of α - and β -wave activity. A notable difference between KI and VI groups occurs in the frontal brain area. In particular, the analysis of evoked responses shows that in all KI subjects the activity in the frontal cortex is suppressed during MI, while in the VI subjects the frontal cortex is always active. The accuracy in classification of left-arm and right-arm MI using artificial intelligence is similar for KI and VI. Since untrained subjects usually demonstrate the VI imagery mode, the possibility to increase the accuracy for VI is in demand for BCIs. The application of artificial neural networks allows us to classify MI in raising right and left arms with average accuracy of 70% for both KI and VI using appropriate filtration of input signals. The same average accuracy is achieved by optimizing MEG channels and reducing their number to only 13.

Visual stimulation of a repetitive self-movement image can evoke kinesthetic illusion when a virtual body part is set over the actual body part (kinesthetic illusion induced by visual stimulation, KINVIS). KINVIS induces activity in cerebral network, similar to that produced during motor execution, and triggers motor imagery passively. This study sought to identify a biomarker of KINVIS using event-related desynchronization (ERD) to improve the application of KINVIS to brain–machine interface (BMI) therapy of patients with stroke with hemiparesis. We included healthy adults in whom KINVIS could be induced. Scalp electroencephalograms were recorded during the KINVIS condition, where KINVIS was induced using a self-movement image. The findings were compared to signals recorded during an observation (OB) condition where only the self-movement image was viewed. For the signal intensity of the α- and low β-frequency bands, we calculated ERD during a movie period. The ERD of the α-frequency band in P3 and CP3 during KINVIS was significantly higher than that during OB. Furthermore, using the ERD of the α-frequency band recorded from FC3 and CP3, we could discriminate illusory perception with a 70% success rate. In this study, KINVIS could be detected using the ERD of the α-frequency band recorded from the posterior portion of the sensorimotor cortex. Furthermore, adding ERD recorded from FC3 to that recorded from CP3 may enable the objective discrimination of KINVIS from OB. When applying KINVIS in BMI therapy, the combination ERD of FC3 and CP3 will become a parameter for objectively judging the degree of kinesthetic perception achieved.