ReviewPsychological research2024
Why motor imagery is not really motoric: towards a re-conceptualization in terms of effect-based action control.
Review in Psychological research, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed.
- 'Substitute' knowledge of results provided through virtual reality enhances motor imagery-based learning.Psychological research · 2026Trial
- Dopamine, motor imagery, and proprioception: a neurochemical probe into the perception-imagery debate.Psychological research · 2025Trial
- Movement Representation Strategies as a Tool for Educational Innovation in Physiotherapy Students: A Randomized Single-Blind Controlled-Pilot Trial.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Trial
- Implicit imagery tasks facilitate learning in declarative memory: Congruence between imagery modality and verb type enhances recognition.Memory & cognition · 2026Article
- One size Fitts' all? Reconsidering the use of deviations from real-time action imagery in mental chronometry tasks.Behavior research methods · 2026Article
- Perceptual Temporal Structure Supports Rhythm Learning and Enhances Theta Oscillations When Perception and Action Are Dissociated.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Recommendations for Combining Brain-Computer Interface, Motor Imagery, and Virtual Reality in Upper Limb Stroke Rehabilitation: Qualitative Participatory Design Study.JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologies · 2025Article
- Even with exposure to errors, motor imagery cannot update internal models.Psychological research · 2025Article
- Motor imagery enhances performance beyond the imagined action.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Editorial: Exploring motor imagery across the lifespan - gaps between practical applications and theoretical frameworks.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Neuromuscular effects suggest that imagery engages motor components directly - a commentary on Frank et al. (2023).Psychological research · 2024Review
- Imagery and motor learning: a special issue on the neurocognitive mechanisms of imagery and imagery practice of motor actions.Psychological research · 2024Article
- A theoretical perspective on action consequences in action imagery: internal prediction as an essential mechanism to detect errors.Psychological research · 2024Review
- Motor imagery from brain to muscle: a commentary on Bach et al., (2022).Psychological research · 2024Review
- The multisensory nature of human action imagery.Psychological research · 2024Review
- Enhancing motor imagery practice using synchronous action observation.Psychological research · 2024Review
- Learning motor actions via imagery-perceptual or motor learning?Psychological research · 2024Review
- Potential benefits of synchronous action observation and motor imagery: a commentary on Eaves et al. 2022.Psychological research · 2024Review
- Imagery practice of motor skills without conscious awareness?: a commentary to Frank et al.Psychological research · 2024Review
- The complex interplay between perception, cognition, and action: a commentary on Bach et al. 2022.Psychological research · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Overt and imagined action seem inextricably linked. Both have similar timing, activate shared brain circuits, and motor imagery influences overt action and vice versa. Motor imagery is, therefore, often assumed to recruit the same motor processes that govern action execution, and which allow one to play through or simulate actions offline. Here, we advance a very different conceptualization. Accordingly, the links between imagery and overt action do not arise because action imagery is intrinsically motoric, but because action planning is intrinsically imaginistic and occurs in terms of the perceptual effects one want to achieve. Seen like this, the term 'motor imagery' is a misnomer of what is more appropriately portrayed as 'effect imagery'. In this article, we review the long-standing arguments for effect-based accounts of action, which are often ignored in motor imagery research. We show that such views provide a straightforward account of motor imagery. We review the evidence for imagery-execution overlaps through this new lens and argue that they indeed emerge because every action we execute is planned, initiated and controlled through an imagery-like process. We highlight findings that this new view can now explain and point out open questions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.