Guidelines for Reporting Action Simulation Studies (GRASS): proposals to improve reporting of research in Motor Imagery and Action Observation

Data availability: No data was used for the research described in the article.Supplementary data is available online at: . https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028393223002671#appsec4 .The version on this institutional repository is also available on PsyArXiv Preprints. It may not have been certified by peer review.Researchers from multiple disciplines have studied the simulation of actions through motor imagery, action observation, or their combination. Procedures used in these studies vary considerably between research groups, and no standardized approach to reporting experimental protocols has been proposed. This has led to under-reporting of critical details, impairing the assessment, replication, synthesis, and potential clinical translation of effects. We provide an overview of issues related to the reporting of information in action simulation studies, and discuss the benefits of standardized reporting. We propose a series of checklists that identify key details of research protocols to include when reporting action simulation studies. Each checklist comprises A) essential methodological details, B) essential details that are relevant to a specific mode of action simulation, and C) further points that may be useful on a case-by-case basis. We anticipate that the use of these guidelines will improve the understanding, reproduction, and synthesis of studies using action simulation, and enhance the translation of research using motor imagery and action observation to applied and clinical settings...

Monitoring of ocean current perturbations using acoustic phase variations

In this paper, we review an acoustic method for measuring both average ocean current speed and sound speed along an acoustic path. The method requires two or more stations on the sea floor, synchronized through a connecting underwater electric cable, that can transmit and receive an acoustic signal and The method is based on reciprocal acoustic transmissions to determine time of flight in both the forward and reverse directions. A specific implementation of this method is proposed. We also consider a novel method for monitoring ocean current perturbations through acoustic phase measurements. In simplest form, a continuous sinusoidal signal is transmitted from one station to a second station. Any variations in ocean current speed will introduce a phase shift in the received signal proportional to the time derivative of the current speed. This effect has been demonstrated through ultrasonic in-air experiments. Finally, the two methods are combined into a single system that continuously measures small-scale ocean current velocity changes

Transformation but Not Generation of Motor Images is Disrupted Following Stimulation Over the Left Inferior Parietal Lobe

Motor imagery (MI) involves the generation, maintenance, and transformation of motor images; yet, the neural underpinnings of each stage are not well understood. Here, we investigated the role of the left inferior parietal lobe (IPL; recruited during MI) in the stages of MI. Healthy participants (N=20) engaged in a MI task (making judgments about hands presented on a screen; hand laterality judgment task) over two days. During the task, active (Day A; 120% resting motor threshold) or sham (Day B; placebo) transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied to the IPL on 50% of trials at 250, 500, or 750ms post-stimulus onset, corresponding to different stages of MI. A/B days were randomized across participants. Linear mixed effects (LME) modelling conducted on reaction time and accuracy revealed that longer reaction times were observed when TMS was delivered at 750ms after trial onset, and more greatly for active vs. sham stimulation. This effect was exacerbated for palm- vs. back-view stimuli and for right vs. left hands. Accuracy overall was decreased for active vs. sham stimulation, and to a greater extent for palm- vs. back-view stimuli and for right vs. left hands. Findings suggest that the left IPL is involved in image transformation. Overall, this work informs on the neural underpinnings of the stages of MI

Transformation but not generation of motor images is disrupted following stimulation over the left inferior parietal lobe

Motor imagery (MI) involves the generation, maintenance, and transformation of motor images; yet, the neural underpinnings of each stage are not well understood. Here, we investigated the role of the left inferior parietal lobe (IPL; recruited during MI) in the stages of MI. Healthy participants (N=20) engaged in a MI task (making judgments about hands presented on a screen; hand laterality judgment task) over two days. During the task, active (Day A; 120% resting motor threshold) or sham (Day B; placebo) transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied to the IPL on 50% of trials at 250, 500, or 750ms post-stimulus onset, corresponding to different stages of MI. A/B days were randomized across participants. Linear mixed effects (LME) modelling conducted on reaction time and accuracy revealed that longer reaction times were observed when TMS was delivered at 750ms after trial onset, and more greatly for active vs. sham stimulation. This effect was exacerbated for palm- vs. back-view stimuli and for right vs. left hands. Accuracy overall was decreased for active vs. sham stimulation, and to a greater extent for palm- vs. back-view stimuli and for right vs. left hands. Findings suggest that the left IPL is involved in image transformation. Overall, this work informs on the neural underpinnings of the stages of MI

Evidence for the dependence of visual and kinesthetic motor imagery on isolated visual and motor practice

Motor imagery (MI) is a cognitive process believed to rely on the representation developed through task-specific experience. Despite ideas about the equivalence between MI and execution, the relationship between visual-motor experiences and MI ability is unclear. Here we evaluated how distinct experiences (i.e., no-vision physical and observational practice) impact visual and kinesthetic MI ability. Participants (N = 66) were randomized into three groups; no-vision physical practice, observational practice and no-practice control. Participants practiced and then visually and kinesthetically imagined two hand gesture sequences. Mental chronometry, a movement time (MT) congruency measure, and MI quality ratings were used to assess MI. As predicted, physical practice produced higher ratings for kinesthetic MI and observational practice elicited higher ratings for visual MI. However, physical practice did not result in greater temporal congruency between imagined/executed MTs in comparison to other groups. We conclude that MI is only partially tied to the motor representation as physical practice was not essential for enhancing MI quality. The motor representation developed with no-vision practice improved perceptions of kinesthetic MI, but without the expected congruence in timing, questioning the equivalence between execution and MI