Motor Imagery: Paralympic Athletes

Motor imagery is defined as the mental simulation or rehearsal of a movement

without physically performing it. During this process, the individual visualizes or

imagines the movement in detail, engaging visual, auditory, tactile, and

kinesthetic senses to rehearse their real performance internally (Wraga &

Kosslyn, 2002). Research in cognitive neuroscience has demonstrated that motor

imagery activates cortical and subcortical areas similar to those involved in actual

movement execution, including the primary motor cortex, premotor area,

supplementary motor area, cingulate cortex, parietal lobule, and cerebellum (Hétu

et al., 2013). This phenomenon is explained by the functional equivalence theory,

which posits that both imagined and executed movements are mediated by similar

neural processes (Morone et al., 2022).