Elham Salari; Fatemeh Ayoobi; Zahra Assadollahi; Hossein Azin; Pouya Abedi; Mahdieh Azin
Volume 25, Issue 8 , 2023
Abstract
Background: Gender differences, in favor of males, exist in motor skills and motor imagery (MI) ability in healthy people. The MI ability in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients was altered; however, the reduction rate in the two genders has not been compared. Knowing the gender difference in MI may be used ...
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Background: Gender differences, in favor of males, exist in motor skills and motor imagery (MI) ability in healthy people. The MI ability in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients was altered; however, the reduction rate in the two genders has not been compared. Knowing the gender difference in MI may be used in rehabilitation programs based on MI.
Objectives: Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate whether gender difference in MI is evident in MS patients.
Methods: Forty-nine relapse-remitting MS patients (23 men) and also 51 healthy subjects (21 men) participated in this case-control study. The MI ability can be measured by Kinesthetic and Visual Imagery Questionnaire-20 (KVIQ-20), mental chronometry based on Box and Block test, and hand mental rotation task.
Results: Healthy men performed most MI tasks better than healthy women. Unlike healthy participants, no gender differences were observed in the KVIQ-20 scale (P=0.904), mental chronometry duration (right hand, P=0.199; left hand, P=0.374) and reaction time of hand mental rotation (right-hand stimuli, P=0.057; left-hand stimuli, P=0.059). However, MS men responded to hand stimuli significantly more accurately than MS women (right-hand stimuli, P=0.007; left-hand stimuli, P=0.027).
Conclusion: Our findings showed that MS men exhibit MI abilities similar to MS women. Perhaps motor deficit in MS males was influenced more by neurocognitive impairment. Perhaps in MS men as compared to MS women, MI practice as motor rehabilitation, could better improve their physical performance.
Maryam Rezaeian; Zahra Assadollahi; Hossien Azin; Ayat Kaeidi; Mahdieh Azin
Volume 23, Issue 3 , 2021
Abstract
Objectives: Motor imagery (MI) is the visualization of action without its overt performance. One of the measures of explicit MI is mental chronometry which has been applied to multiple sclerosis (MS) patients; nonetheless, the reliability ...
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Objectives: Motor imagery (MI) is the visualization of action without its overt performance. One of the measures of explicit MI is mental chronometry which has been applied to multiple sclerosis (MS) patients; nonetheless, the reliability and validity of this tool has been never confirmed. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess the reliability and validity of mental chronometry in MS patients.
Methods: A number of 60 MS patients who met the inclusion criteria were included in the present study via the census method. Thereafter, 20 MS patients were tested via mental chronometry based on the box and block test, as well as kinesthetic and visual imagery questionnaire-20 (KVIQ-20) in two sessions with a 10-day interval. Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated to determine the test-retest reliability of mental chronometry. Pearsons correlation analysis was used to evaluate criterion validity with the KVIQ-20.
Results: The test-retest reliability for the mental chronometry was good (ICCs: visual analogue scale=0.88, mean execution and motor imagery absolute difference= 0.75, imagery duration=0.91, and execution duration=0.97). Moreover, the concurrent validity between the visual analogue scale of mental chronometry and KVIQ-20 was good.
Conclusion: As evidenced by the results of the present study, the mental chronometry based on box and block is a reliable and valid tool for the assessment of motor imagery in MS patients.
