Objective: The present study attempts to establish the normative reference value for motor imagery and compare it with patients with movement disorders.

Background: Motor imagery, a subset of mental practice, emphasizes mental rehearsal of motor skills to improve function. The use of motor imagery and observation for enhancing performance through mental practice is gaining wide importance in neurological rehabilitation sector. Mental imagery, when combined with physical therapy, has been demonstrated to improve motor performance in individuals. The ability to perform motor imagery varies across people, and this capability would have a major effect on the effectiveness of motor imagery training. Hence, a valid reference range needs to be established before this test can be used over various categories of patients. The MIQRS was designed to be administered in such a way that the task to be imagined is read to the volunteer word-forword from a script and the volunteer (not the evaluator) records their score on a visual analog scale.

Method: 100 young college students  and 6 patients with essential tremors were selected by convenient sampling to participate in this study. They were administered MID-RS questionnaire by a team of trained physiotherapists. The data was analysed using suitable statistical tests.

Results: The mean age of the healthy controls was 22 ± 1.40 years  and patients ( 4F: 2M) was 22.83 ± 0.98 with mean years of education 14.12 ± 1.17 years and 15.50 ± 0.84 years. The mean MIQ-RS score among healthy controls was 68.06 ± 10.80 with visual imagery score of 18.38 ± 3.08 and Kinaesthetic imagery score of 18.34 ± 3.41 whereas in patients group mean MIQ-RS score was 45.33 ±  2.66 with visual imagery score of 15.13 ±  2.24 and kinaesthetic score of 11.25 ±  0.74.

Conclusion: Thus the results can serve as a useful tool to evaluate outcomes and aid in the delineation of patients with movement disorders who are best suited for mental imagery training.

References: Melanie Gregg, Craig Hall, Andrew Butler.The MIQ-RS: A Suitable Option for Examining Movement Imagery Ability. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2010 Jun; 7(2): 249–257. Malouin F, Richards CL, Jackson PL, Lafleur MF, Durand A, Doyon J. The Kinesthetic and Visual Imagery Questionnaire (KVIQ) for assessing motor imagery in persons with physical disabilities: a reliability and construct validity study. J Neurol Phys Ther. 2007;31:20–9. Mirelman A1, Maidan I, Deutsch JE. Virtual reality and motor imagery: promising tools for assessment and therapy in Parkinson’s disease. Mov Disord. 2013 Sep 15;28(11):1597-608.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/efficacy-of-motor-imagery-questionnaire-rs-as-a-diagnostic-tool-in-rehabilitation-of-movement-disorders/