Benefits of Motor Imagery for Human Space Flight: A Brief Review of Current Knowledge and Future Applications

Conclusion: How to Implement MI Into the Preparation and Mission of the Astronauts Motor imagery should ideally be performed before, during, and after exposure to microgravity to prepare for the lack of gravity, counteract the effects of weightlessness and promote the re-adaptation to normogravity. A quite similar theoretical viewpoint had been nicely proposed by Bock et al. (2015), who more specifically focused on the preparation period few days before landing. These authors developed two phases of individual MI training program to reach an optimal level of preparation before exposure to microgravity. In the first phase, astronauts should familiarize with MI and develop their MI ability, concurrently with physical practice. Practically, programs might incorporate MI of exercises related to conditions encountered during the forthcoming flight. The second step would be scheduled a few days just before landing and improve performance of astronauts upon return to Earth. Whereby MI might be used and provide before landing and improve performance of astronauts upon return to Earth benefits such as during and after the flight should certainly be extended at other times. MI is a multimodal construct and should ideally combine the different imagery modalities, including visual imagery through the first and third-person perspectives, as well as kinesthetic imagery. As mentioned previously, this latter form of imagery practice, which requires to feel sensations usually elicited by th...
Source: Frontiers in Physiology - Category: Physiology Source Type: research