Motor Imagery and Action Observation on Lumbar Motor Variables

Universidad Autonoma de Madrid

Status: Completed

Conditions: Motor Activity

Treatments: Behavioral: motor imagery; Behavioral: Motor Control Exercises; Behavioral: Action observation

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03902847

5

Details and patient eligibility

About

Motor imagery is defined as a dynamic mental process of an action, without its real motor execution. Action observation evokes an internal, real-time motor simulation of the movements that the observer is perceiving visually. Both MI and AO have been shown to produce a neurophysiological activation of the brain areas related to the planning and execution of voluntary movement in a similar manner how the real action.

Enrollment: 45 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

The inclusion criteria were as follows:

• asymptomatic participants
• men and women aged 18 to 65 years.

Exclusion criteria

The exclusion criteria included the following:

• participants who had any knowledge of Physical Therapy or Occupational Therapy
• underage participants
• participants with any symptomatology in the lumbo-pelvic region at the time of the study -participants with lumbo-pelvic pain in at least the prior six months
• subjects who have been treated for lumbo-pelvic pain in the previous 6 months
• participants with any type of neurological disease.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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45 participants in 3 patient groups

Motor imagery

Experimental group

Description:

All the subjects in this group were informed of the procedure at the beginning of the intervention, which consisted of the following: in the first phase (the first week), all participants had to perform the same motor control exercises program than the control group, but previously, a mental practice based on kinesthetic mental motor imagery was performed. To reinforce the process of motor imagery, a video with the exercises was shown to the subjects before performing the mental practice. All subjects had to imagine that he/she was performing each exercise during 1 set of 12 repetitions prior to the real execution of this. During the second phase (the second and third week), subjects had to complete the set both imagining, with visual mental motor imagery, and actively performing the exercises.

Treatment:

Behavioral: motor imagery

Action observation

Experimental group

Description:

All the subjects in this group were informed of the procedure at the beginning of the intervention, which consisted of the following: in the first phase (the first week), all participants had to perform the same motor control exercises program than the control group, but prior to the real execution, a video was shown in third-person perspective. All subjects watched one person performing each exercise during 1 set of 12 repetitions. During the second phase (the second and third week), subjects had to perform actively the exercises while they watched the video. All the participants also received a booklet with written information about the indications and exercises to be practiced at home to ensure that the training program was performed properly. Each week, participants received messages to remind and motivate them to undertake the exercise program daily.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Action observation

Control group

Active Comparator group

Description:

The subjects in this group received an intensive training program based on stabilization exercises of lumbo-pelvic region, which are common exercises used in rehabilitation of patients with chronic non-specific low back pain.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Motor Control Exercises