Tadhg Macintyre

Publications (11) View all

• Source

  Available from: Aymeric Guillot

  Article: Re-imagining motor imagery: building bridges between cognitive neuroscience and sport psychology.

  Aidan Moran, Aymeric Guillot, Tadhg Macintyre, Christian Collet
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  ABSTRACT: One of the most remarkable capacities of the mind is its ability to simulate sensations, actions, and other types of experience. A mental simulation process that has attracted recent attention from cognitive neuroscientists and sport psychologists is motor imagery or the mental rehearsal of actions without engaging in the actual physical movements involved. Research on motor imagery is important in psychology because it provides an empirical window on consciousness and movement planning, rectifies a relative neglect of non-visual types of mental imagery, and has practical implications for skill learning and skilled performance in special populations (e.g., athletes, surgeons). Unfortunately, contemporary research on motor imagery is hampered by a variety of semantic, conceptual, and methodological issues that prevent cross-fertilization of ideas between cognitive neuroscience and sport psychology. In this paper, we review these issues, suggest how they can be resolved, and sketch some potentially fruitful new directions for inter-disciplinary research in motor imagery.
  British Journal of Psychology 05/2012; 103(2):224-47. · 2.37 Impact Factor
• Source

  Available from: Christian Collet

  Article: Imagining is Not Doing but Involves Specific Motor Commands: A Review of Experimental Data Related to Motor Inhibition.

  Aymeric Guillot, Franck Di Rienzo, Tadhg Macintyre, Aidan Moran, Christian Collet
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  ABSTRACT: There is now compelling evidence that motor imagery (MI) and actual movement share common neural substrate. However, the question of how MI inhibits the transmission of motor commands into the efferent pathways in order to prevent any movement is largely unresolved. Similarly, little is known about the nature of the electromyographic activity that is apparent during MI. In addressing these gaps in the literature, the present paper argues that MI includes motor execution commands for muscle contractions which are blocked at some level of the motor system by inhibitory mechanisms. We first assemble data from neuroimaging studies that demonstrate that the neural networks mediating MI and motor performance are not totally overlapping, thereby highlighting potential differences between MI and actual motor execution. We then review MI data indicating the presence of subliminal muscular activity reflecting the intrinsic characteristics of the motor command as well as increased corticomotor excitability. The third section not only considers the inhibitory mechanisms involved during MI but also examines how the brain resolves the problem of issuing the motor command for action while supervising motor inhibition when people engage in voluntary movement during MI. The last part of the paper draws on imagery research in clinical contexts to suggest that some patients move while imagining an action, although they are not aware of such movements. In particular, experimental data from amputees as well as from patients with Parkinson's disease are discussed. We also review recent studies based on comparing brain activity in tetraplegic patients with that from healthy matched controls that provide insights into inhibitory processes during MI. We conclude by arguing that based on available evidence, a multifactorial explanation of motor inhibition during MI is warranted.
  Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 01/2012; 6:247. · 2.34 Impact Factor
• Source

  Available from: Aymeric Guillot

  Article: Measuring motor imagery using psychometric, behavioral, and psychophysiological tools.

  Christian Collet, Aymeric Guillot, Florent Lebon, Tadhg MacIntyre, Aidan Moran
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  ABSTRACT: This review examines the measurement of motor imagery (MI) processes. First, self-report measures of MI are evaluated. Next, mental chronometry measures are considered. Then, we explain how physiological indices of the autonomic nervous system can measure MI. Finally, we show how these indices may be combined to produce a measure of MI quality called the Motor Imagery Index.
  Exercise and sport sciences reviews 12/2010; 39(2):85-92. · 3.23 Impact Factor
• Source

  Available from: Paul S. Holmes

  Chapter: Mental Imagery, Action Observation and Skill Learning

  Aidan P Moran, Mark J Campbell, Paul Holmes, Tadhg MacIntyre
  06/2012: pages 94-111; , ISBN: 978-0-415-60784-1
• Source

  Available from: Tadhg Macintyre

  Chapter: MacIntyre, T. & Moran, A. P. (2009). Meta-Imagery processes among elite sports performers. In A. Guillot & C. Collet (Eds.), The neurophysiological foundations of mental and motor imagery (pp.227-244). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  Tadhg Macintyre, Aidan Moran
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  ABSTRACT: This visualisation technique is a sort of clarified daydream with snippets of the atmosphere from past matches included to enhance the sense of reality…The game will throw up many different scenarios but I am as prepared in my own head for them as I can be. If you have realistically imagined situations, you feel better prepared and less fearful of the unexpected. Former England and Lions rugby player, Jonny Wilkinson, 2006, p. 58. Visualising things is massively important. If you don't visualise, then you allow other negative thoughts to enter your head. Not visualising is almost like having a satellite navigation system in your car, but not entering your destination into it. The machinery can only work if you put everything in there. Golfer Darren Clarke, 2005, p. 3
  01/2010: pages 227-244; , ISBN: 0199546258