Journal of Motor Behavior, Vol. 45, No. 1, 2013 Copyright C  Taylor & Francis Group, LLC REVIEW ARTICLE Motor Imagery and Aging Arnaud Saimpont 1,2 , Francine Malouin 2,3 ,B´ eatrice Tousignant 1,2 , Philip L. Jackson 1,2,4 1 ´ Ecole de psychologie, Universit´ e Laval, Qu´ ebec, Canada. 2 Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche en r ´ eadaptation et int´ egration sociale, Qu ´ ebec, Canada. 3 D´ epartement de r ´ eadaptation, Universit ´ e Laval, Qu´ ebec, Canada. 4 Centre de recherche de l’institut en sant ´ e mentale de Qu ´ ebec, Canada. ABSTRACT. Motor imagery (MI) is the mental simulation of an action without its actual execution. It has been success- fully used through mental practice—the repetition of imagined movements—to optimize motor function either in sport or reha- bilitation settings. Healthy elderly individuals facing age-related impairments in motor function could also benefit from this method of training–retraining. The authors review studies that have inves- tigated MI in physically and mentally healthy adults aged 55 years and older. First, they provide an overview of the psychophysical data on MI in the elderly, which show no changes with aging in the ability to imagine simple–usual movements but reveal some age-related al- terations in the mental simulation of difficult–unusual movements. Second, they present emerging neuroimaging and neurostimulation data revealing that the sensorimotor system is engaged during MI in older adults. Finally, the authors emphasize the potential of using mental practice as a safe and easy way to help preserving/improving motor function in the elderly and provide some recommendations for future research in this direction. Keywords: aging, mental practice, motor imagery O ne exciting property of the human brain is its capacity to simulate the external world as well as behaviors, even in the absence of external stimulation. For motor acts, the ability to imagine or mentally simulate an action without any overt output is often referred as motor imagery (MI) ability. In young adults, there is accumulating evidence of func- tional similarities between imagined and executed actions, notably regarding the temporal characteristics, neural corre- lates and autonomic responses associated with both states (see Decety, 1996; Jeannerod, 1995; Munzert & Zentgraf, 2009). The demonstration of these similarities has refueled the interest for mental practice (or MI training; i.e., the repeti- tion of imagined movements with the intention of improving motor function). Mental practice has been widely used by athletes to enhance their performance (see Feltz & Landers, 1983; Murphy, 1994) and its efficiency to help retrain motor function in people with physical disabilities has received in- creasing attention since the 2000s (see Dijkerman, Ietswaart, & Johnston, 2010; Jackson, Lafleur, Malouin, Richards, & Doyon, 2001; Malouin & Richards, 2010). Curiously, there are very few reports on the use of MI train- ing specifically with healthy older adults. Yet, even normal aging is associated with motor impairments affecting gait, balance and coordination (see Seidler et al., 2010). Hence, mental practice could be used to help reducing the impact of age-related decline in motor function (and thus eventually help preserving functional autonomy in the elderly). As the ability to form mental representations of movements is a pre- requisite to engage in mental practice (Malouin, Richards, Jackson, & Doyon, 2010), there is a need to explore whether and how MI ability evolves with aging to potentially adapt mental practice accordingly. In this perspective, in the present article we review studies that have investigated MI in phys- ically and mentally healthy adults aged 55 years and older. First, we discuss the psychophysical data indicating that MI ability for simple and unconstrained movements is well pre- served with aging whereas it may be altered for constrained movements. Second, we present the results on the neural basis of MI in the elderly, which show that the core re- gions underpinning MI in younger adults are also engaged in older adults. Finally we report the scarce literature on MI training with older adults and touch on future research directions to promote the use of mental practice to help pre- serving/improving motor function in the elderly. Is MI Ability Preserved With Aging? Due to its mental and covert nature, MI cannot be di- rectly observed and must be accessed by self-reports or via its behavioral or neurophysiological correlates. Three dimen- sions of MI are classically studied: the vividness of the mo- tor representations, the temporal characteristics of the simu- lated movements, and the accuracy of MI (see McAvinue & Robertson, 2008). All three dimensions have been explored to varying degrees in the elderly. MI Vividness and Aging Movements can be mentally simulated from a first-person perspective (i.e., as if one is the actor of the action) or from a third-person perspective (i.e., as if one is a spectator of the action). During first-person MI, an individual elicits kines- thetic sensations or visual representations of the action as if he or she were actually performing it; during third-person MI, visual representations are primarily involved, as if an individual were observing him- or herself or someone else executing the action. The vividness of MI refers to the con- tent of MI (i.e., the clarity of the images or the intensity of the sensations perceived during the mental simulation of the movement). This property is generally assessed via self- report questionnaires, which contain explicit instructions to imagine movements and where subjects typically rate the vividness by means of Likert-type scales. To date, two stud- ies have specifically documented the effects of aging on MI Correspondence address: Philip L. Jackson, CIRRIS, 525 boule- vard Hamel, Qu´ ebec G1M 2S8, Canada. e-mail: philip.jackson@ psy.ulaval.ca 21 Downloaded by [Universite Laval] at 10:55 22 April 2013