The impact of thermal and auditory unpleasant stimulus on motor imagery in healthy individuals

Abstract

Motor imagery is the ability to mentally simulate a motor task without actually performing it. Pain is an unpleasant sensory experience that involves different dimensions - sensory-discriminative, motivational-affective, and cognitive-evaluative - that are known to interfere with motor imagery. However, it remains unclear which specific pain dimension most significantly impairs motor imagery.

This study aims to compare the effects of unpleasant auditory (primarily affective and cognitive) and thermal (primarily sensory) stimuli, which can be assimilated to pain, on discrete and continuous explicit motor imagery modalities. Eighteen healthy participants were exposed to unpleasant stimuli in addition to a control condition. Participants rated their motor imagery abilities after tasks involving rest, motor execution, and motor imagery in discrete and continuous wrist movement modalities.

Results showed that during discrete motor imagery, only the aversive auditory stimulus significantly reduced motor imagery abilities, whereas thermal pain had no effect. In contrast, motor imagery abilities were preserved during the continuous modality.

These findings suggest that explicit motor imagery may be more affected by the affective dimension of pain induced by aversive auditory stimuli. The preservation of motor imagery abilities in the continuous modality provides insight into the optimization of rehabilitation programs.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Funding Statement

The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.

Author Declarations

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

Yes

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

The study was approved by the local ethics committee (Comité d'Éthique de la Recherche de l'Université de Montpellier: n° UM 2023-031)

I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.

Yes

I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

Yes

I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable.

Yes

Data Availability

The data underlying the results presented in the study are available from an excel.

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