Effects of Motor Imagery and Hypnosis for improving motor function: A Review of Implications and Neural mechanisms

Many medical conditions can cause motor disability in patients which can disrupt their daily activities including, Stroke and Parkinson's disease. Prescribed drugs alone are not always sufficient for managing all symptoms of the disease, while may have considerable side effects. Therefore, there is a need for complementary and effective treatment to eliminate symptoms of the patients without serious side effects. Studies have demonstrated that imagery-based psychological interventions might be effective tools in this regard. Evidence shows that hypnosis and motor imagery have promising results in improving motor function in patients and motor enhancement in healthy subjects e.g. athletes. Non-invasive brain stimulation has shown to be used for boosting the effectiveness of these types of interventions. In this review, we will elaborate on the application and effectiveness of imagery-based interventions, the effect of Non-invasive brain stimulation on those interventions, and their mechanism of action. Also, limitations of current studies will be discussed for conducting better studies in the future.