Fatigue, defined as a subjective lack of physical and/or mental energy, is a clinical symptom highly characterizing multiple sclerosis (MS). The present study utilized a novel approach to the study of fatigue, examining first person-mental imagery of the symptom. Eighteen right-handed patients with MS (14F, 4 M, mean age 45.8 ± 8.15 years) were evaluated and were compared to nineteen healthy controls (10F, 9 M, mean age 43.15 ± 8.34 years) Patients were all in relapsing remitting form and no patient had presented relapses in the 6 months prior to inclusion in the study. We evaluated their behavioral performance and fMRI activations. We used an fMRI paradigm used to trigger first person-mental imagery of fatigue, through short sentences describing the principal manifestations of fatigue. Participants were asked to imagine the corresponding sensations (Sensory Imagery, SI). As a control, they had to imagine the visual scenes (Visual Imagery, VI) described in short phrases. They made a vividness rating by pressing the corresponding button. Behaviorally, we found that patients\' mean scores at the Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory for the general scale, physical scale, and mental scale were significantly higher than healthy controls (p = 0.05, p = 0.002, p = 0.006 respectively), but not for the emotional scale and for vigor scale (p = 0.207, n.s., p = 0.06, n.s.). In the imagery fMRI task, patients were significantly slower (mean reaction times and standard deviation: 2.24 s ± 0.33) than controls (mean reaction times and standard deviation: 1.918 s ± 0.455) for the SI task (Z=-2.058, p = 0.040), while no significant difference was found for the VI task. Regarding brain mapping, our main result is a group by task interaction. The SI task (vs. VI task) in healthy controls (relative to patients) increased activation in the left inferior parietal lobule. These preliminary results indicate that fatigue is related to dysfunctions in higher-order aspects of motor control, given the role of the posterior parietal lobe in motor planning and multisensory integration.

UNASSIGNED: There is emerging evidence that a brief cognitive task intervention may reduce the frequency of intrusive memories, even long-standing memories of older trauma. However, evaluations to date have involved in-person researcher contact. We investigated the feasibility and acceptability of remote delivery to women (n = 12) in Iceland who had experienced trauma on average two decades earlier.
UNASSIGNED: Participants monitored intrusive memories in a daily diary for one week (i.e., baseline phase), completed (at least) two guided, remote intervention sessions (e.g., via secure video platform), and were encouraged to continue to use the intervention self-guided.
UNASSIGNED: Eight participants completed the primary outcome and reported fewer intrusive memories in Week 5 (M = 6.98, SD = 5.73) compared to baseline (M = 25.98, SD = 29.39) - a 68% reduction. Intrusions decreased at each subsequent time point; at 3-months (n = 7) there was a 91% reduction compared to baseline. Other psychological symptoms reduced and functioning improved. Importantly, participant ratings and qualitative feedback support feasibility and acceptability.
UNASSIGNED: Findings suggest the feasibility of remote delivery of the brief imagery-competing task intervention by non-specialists (who were not mental health professionals) and hold promise for developing psychotherapeutic innovations supporting women with intrusive memories even decades after trauma.

UNASSIGNED: Behavioral activation (BA) is an effective and efficacious treatment for depression. Activity scheduling is the central treatment component of BA and involves planning of potentially enjoyable and rewarding activities. Evidence from non-clinical studies suggests that mental imagery simulations of planned activities can increase motivation and anticipated pleasure for these activities.
UNASSIGNED: We describe a randomized controlled trial testing a mental imagery activity scheduling training delivered online in four weekly sessions (total training duration approximately 90 minutes) in a sample meeting diagnostic criteria of a major depressive episode, as indicated by the Diagnostic Short-Interview for Mental Disorders (Mini-DIPS), and not currently receiving treatment. Participants (N = 140) will be randomized to either mental imagery activity scheduling or a wait-list control condition. Depressive symptoms (BDI-II) and behavioral activation (BADS) are the primary outcomes; BDI-II will be measured at Session 1, Session 4, and at two-week follow-up, BADS at Sessions 1-4 and at two-week follow-up.
UNASSIGNED: It is discussed how the expected results may reflect mechanisms and effects of a mental imagery activity scheduling training delivered online in a sample of individuals with depression. Concluding we outline next steps for future research and highlight the potential of this novel treatment for dissemination in the wider community and integration into routine care.

暂无摘要。

OBJECTIVE: Increased attention has recently been paid to the well-being and flourishing of patients in psychotherapy. This study investigated the occurrence of positive affect (PA) and strength-based behaviours within psychotherapy sessions contrasting positive versus neutral imagery instructions.
METHODS: This is a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial. Seventy-eight sessions of cognitive behavioural therapy involving 26 patients (69.23% female; Mage = 40.31) treated by 13 therapists were selected. PA and strength-based behaviours of patients and therapists were coded on a minute-by-minute basis with the Resource-Oriented Microprocess Analysis. Each session started with a brief mental imagery instruction. Data were analysed using multilevel modelling.
RESULTS: Mild levels of PA were very common, whereas stronger expressions were occasional, especially at the beginning and end of sessions. Strength-based behaviours were employed in one-fifth of the videos analysed. Therapists in the positive imagery instruction showed more strength-based behaviours in the beginning phase of sessions, p < 0.05. The two imagery instructions significantly differed in the session trajectories of PA, p < 0.05. A quadratic trend with higher initial values and a sharper decline in PA were found in the positive instruction, whereas the neutral instruction showed a flatter trend.
CONCLUSIONS: Patients and therapists experience PA and discuss strengths in psychotherapy sessions despite patients\' distress. The positive imagery instructions potentially induced a positive focus at baseline for therapists but had a negligible effect on the subsequent session progression.
BACKGROUND: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03767101 (registered December 6, 2018).

The effectiveness of motor imagery (MI) training on sports performance is now well-documented. Recently, it has been proposed that a single session of MI combined with low frequency sound (LFS) might enhance muscle activation. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this effect remain unknown. We set up a test-retest intervention over the course of 2 consecutive days to evaluate the effect of (i) MI training (MI, n = 20), (ii) MI combined with LFS (MI + LFS, n = 20), and (iii) a control condition (CTRL, n = 20) on force torque produced across repeated maximal voluntary contractions of the quadriceps before (Pretest), after (Posttest) and at +12 h (Retention) post-intervention. We collected the integrated electromyograms of the quadriceps muscles, as well as brain electrical potentials during each experimental intervention. In the CTRL group, total force torque decreased from Pretest to Retention and from Posttest to Retention. By contrast, there was an increase between Posttest and Retention in both MI + LFS and MI groups (both ηP2 = 0.03, p < 0.05). Regression analyses further revealed a negative relationship between force performance and EEG activity in the MI + LFS group only. The data support a transient interference of LFS on cortical activity underlying the priming effects of MI practice on force performance. Findings are discussed in relation to the potential for motor reprogramming through MI combined with LFS.

Within the past decade, the term \"phantasia\" has been increasingly used to describe the human capacity, faculty, or power of visual mental imagery, with extremes of imagery vividness characterised as \"aphantasia\" and \"hyperphantasia\". A substantial volume of empirical research addressing these constructs has now been published, including attempts to find inductive correlates of behaviourally defined aphantasia, for example using research questionnaires and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Mental imagery has long been noted as a source of conceptual confusions but no specific conceptual analysis of the new formulation of phantasia, aphantasia, and hyperphantasia has been undertaken hitherto. We offer some conceptual considerations on phantasia, noting the ongoing confusion of perceptual with mental images, and the ubiquitous use of unvalidated subjective assessment instruments such as the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ) in diagnosis and assessment, development of which was predicated on these conceptual confusions. We offer some suggestions for a conceptual framework for future empirical studies in this field, circumventing these conceptual confusions.

UNASSIGNED: To carry out their victim rescue and fire-fighting missions, firefighters perform high levels of physical exertion and among them strenuous muscular activity. A specific mental preparation protocol that could induce better strength performance throughout their 24-hour schedule is a major issue for firefighters.
UNASSIGNED: This case report aims to examine whether a 6-minute Intervention combining mental imagery practices and breathing exercises, specifically designed to be used while travelling between the fire station and the mission site, would be able to promote maximum strength performance.
UNASSIGNED: A series of three Single Case Experimental Designs (SCED) was conducted in single blind design to investigate the effects of repeated challenge-withdrawals between the Intervention and the Baseline on the maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) strength of the hand-grip.
UNASSIGNED: Data analyses revealed that 62.5% to 100% of the hand-grip strength values during the Intervention periods were greater than or equal to the maximum data point recorded in the Baseline periods. The effect sizes of these highlighted increases of the hand-grip strength performance revealed by the percentage of non-overlapping data (PND) were 75% i.e., moderately effective on average.
UNASSIGNED: Such a \"psyching-up\" practice before an upcoming muscular activity can promote muscular strength in firefighters. These results have led French firefighter departments to integrate the teaching of these practices into the initial instruction of firefighters, and remains to be confirmed by a randomised control trial.

Mental imagery may represent a weaker form of perception and, thus, mental images may be more ambiguous than visual percepts. If correct, the acquisition of fear would be less specific for imagined fears in comparison to perceptual fears, perhaps facilitating broader fear generalization. To test this idea, a two-day differential fear conditioning experiment (N = 98) was conducted. On day one, two groups of participants underwent differential fear conditioning such that a specific Gabor patch orientation (CS+) was paired with mild shocks (US) while a second Gabor patch of orthogonal orientation (CS-) was never paired with shock. Critically, one group imagined the Gabor patches and the other group was visually presented the Gabor patches. Next, both groups were presented visual Gabor patches of similar orientations (GCS) to the CS+. On day two, to assess the persistence of imagined fear, participants returned to the lab and were tested on the GCS devoid of shock. For day one, in contrast to our primary hypothesis, both self-report and skin conductance response measures did not show a significant interaction between the GCS and groups. On day two, both measures demonstrated a persistence of imagined fear, without US delivery. Taken together, rather than demonstrating an overgeneralization effect, the results from this study suggest that imagery-based fear conditioning generalizes to a similar extent as perceptually acquired fear conditioning. Further, the persistence of imagery-based fear may have unique extinction qualities in comparison to perceptual-based fear.

In autistic individuals, the role, performance, and autonomy of perceptual functioning are atypical. Overlapping underlying mechanisms of perception and mental imagery predict that the mental imagery abilities of autistic individuals should differ from those of non‐autistic individuals. While enhanced abilities to manipulate mental images have been demonstrated in autism, the other stages of mental imagery (generation, maintenance, inspection) remain to be explored. Forty‐four autistic adults and 42 typical participants performed four tasks to assess different stages of mental imagery: the Image generation task (mentally generating a letter on a grid and indicating whether it passes over a probe located in the grid), the Visual pattern test (maintaining visual patterns in memory), the Image scanning test (inspecting mental images) and the Mental rotation test (mentally manipulating representations of geometric figures). In the image generation task and the mental rotation test, autistic and typical individuals performed equivalently, both in accuracy and response time. The span observed in the visual pattern test was significantly higher in the autistic group, indicating better maintenance of mental images. In the image scanning test, response times were influenced by the distance to mentally inspect in the typical group but not in the autistic group. Autistic participants were equally fast regardless of distance to inspect. Preserved, greater or differently influenced visual mental imagery abilities are in line with an atypical perceptual functioning in autism, possibly reflecting an increased weight of perception‐based information relatively to the top‐down effect of knowledge and language‐based influence.