Browsing by Author "Mäkelä, Mari"

Mental training, or motor imagery training, refers to cognitive rehearsal of a motor task without overt physical movement. The focus of this thesis is to present an overview of motor imagery research and the neural mechanisms behind motor imagery. I also review some recent studies about motor imagery training and at the end of this thesis I shortly introduce the PETTLEP-model of motor imagery training. Imaging of performing the motor task relies widely on the same neural mechanisms than performance of the same task, and studies have shown that mental training can improve the actual performance. Motor imagery has been studied in the field of cognitive neuroscience and sport psychology, but there has been a lack of communication between these research fields. This has for example lead to the confusion of the different definitions. Current research knowledge suggests that motor imagery training can be most effective when combined with physical training.