Wed Apr 4, 2007 9:27AM EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A traditional rehabilitation program that incorporates mental practice of tasks during therapy significantly improves outcomes in patients with chronic stroke, according to a report in the journal Stroke.
"Mental practice, sometimes called 'motor imagery,' is a technique by which physical skills can be cognitively rehearsed in a safe, repetitive manner," Dr. Stephen J. Page and colleagues from the University of Cincinnati Academic Medical Center, Ohio, write. "Mental practice increases motor-skill learning and performance in rehabilitative settings, and the same neural and muscular structures are activated when movements are mentally practiced as during physical practice of the same skills."
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