Simulação mental de movimentos : da teoria à aplicação na reabilitação motora.

Motor imagery (MI) consists in the evocation of a motor plan of a given action without motor output. Objective. To perform a review and critical analyses about MI, discussing its neurophysiological characteristics, differences between the strategies of simulation and the clinical application in the context of rehabilitation of post-stroke patients. Method. Search of studies indexed by ISI and Medline databases, published between 1980 and 2012, in English, Spanish or Portuguese. Discussion. MI can promote similar brain, physiological and behavioral activations as during the execution of motor actions. However, MI can be performed using two possible strategies, visual and kinesthetic, and each of them causes different patterns of cortical activation. It was also observed that the training with MI can improve performance in post-stroke patients. However, it was not possible to standardize the use of the more appropriate protocol, since there is still no consensus on the frequency, duration, strategy of MI and stage of the disease is most appropriate for its application. Conclusions. Despite the advances, there is still a need of more studies to determine the guidelines for mental simulation in the motor rehabilitation and its long-term benefits.