The Impact of Motor Imageries on Aesthetic Judgment of Chinese Calligraphy: An fMRI Study

Previous behavioral studies on aesthetics demonstrated that there was a close association between perceived action and aesthetic appreciation. However, few studies explored whether motor imagery would influence aesthetic experience and its neural substrates. In the current study, Chinese calligraphy was used as the stimuli to explore the relationship between the motor imagery and the aesthetic judgments of a participant using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The imaging results showed that, compared with the baseline, the activation of the brain regions [e.g., anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), putamen, and insula] involved in perceptual processing, cognitive judgments, aesthetic emotional, and reward processing was observed after the participants performed motor imagery tasks. The contrast analyses within aesthetic judgments showed that the kinesthetic imagery significantly activated the middle frontal gyrus, postcentral gyrus, ACC, and thalamus. Generally, these areas were considered to be closely related to positive aesthetic experience and suggested that motor imagery, especially kinesthetic imagery, might be specifically associated with the aesthetic appreciation of Chinese calligraphy.

The Effect of Three Methods of Kinesthetic Imagery, Active, and Combined Exercises on Electromyographic Pattern of Hip Hyperextension and the Muscle Strength of Gluteus Maximus and Abdominal in Women With Lumbar Hyperlordosis

Purpose: Mental exercise uses the same neuronal pathways involved in physical exercise to modify the pattern and function without stress caused by physical exercise. This study investigates the effect of kinesthetic imagery, active, and combined exercises (imagery and active) on the hip hyperextension and the power of selected lumbopelvic muscles in women suffering from lumbar hyperlordosis. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 36 women with lumbar hyperlordosis (age range: 30-40 years, non-athlete and without injury and surgery in the lumbar region) were selected and divided into three groups. The groups practiced three sessions per week for six weeks. We assessed the lumbar lordosis by a flexible ruler and the electromyographic (EMG) activity of the lumbopelvic muscles during hip hyperextension in the prone position by surface electromyogram. We also measured the power of the gluteus maximus using a dynamometer during hip hyperextension and the abdominal muscles using a goniometer during the double leg lowering test. All of the measurements were done before and after the intervention. The normality of the data was checked by The Shapiro-Wilk test, and the obtained data were analyzed by repeated-measures ANOVA test at the significant level of 0.05. Results: The variables of lumbar lordosis were significantly reduced in the active and combined groups in the post-test compared to the pre-test, and the strength of gluteus and abdominal muscles in the active and combined groups in the post-test significantly increased compared to the pre-test. However, the lumbar lordosis and strength of gluteus and abdominal muscles in the post-test were not significantly changed compared to the pre-test. Gluteus maximus and abdominis transverse muscle activity rates in the combined group increased significantly in the post-test compared to the pre-test, and gluteus maximus muscle activity rate in the active group increased significantly in the post-test compared to the pre-test. Gluteus maximus muscle activity in the imagery group increased significantly in the post-test compared to the pre-test. The activity of lumbar erector spinae and rectus femoris muscles decreased significantly in the active and combined groups in the post-test compared to the pre-test. However, the activity of the rectus femoris muscle decreased significantly in the image group in the post-test compared to the pre-test (P≤0.05). The results showed a significant difference between the three methods of kinesthetic imagery, active, and combined (P=0.001). There was a significant difference between the method of the imagery exercise and the active and combined exercise methods but no significant difference between methods of the active and combined exercise. Conclusion: Imagery exercises effectively modified the EMG of some lumbopelvic muscles (gluteus maximus and rectus femoris muscles). However, it had no significant effect on the strength and degree of lumbar lordosis. The combined exercise was as effective as active exercise in modifying the EMG activity of the lumbopelvic muscles and the strength of the abdominal and gluteus maximus muscles.

Imagery in Song Lyrics of Taylor Swift

The purposes of this research are to identify the kind of imagery in Taylor Swift song lyrics, how Taylor Swift describes imagery in her song lyrics, and dominant imagery in Taylor Swift song lyrics. This research limited to three songs in the “Reputation” album, those songs are Look What You Made Me Do, Delicate, Gorgeous. This research used a descriptive qualitative method to analyze the data. The results of this research indicate that (1) There are five kinds of imagery, they are visual imagery, auditory imagery, kinesthetic imagery, tactile imagery, and organic imagery in Taylor Swift song lyrics. There are nine visual imagery, one auditory imagery, three kinesthetic imagery, two tactile imagery, 19 organic imagery, and thus the writers found 34 imagery in three song lyrics of Taylor Swift. (2) Taylor Swift prefers to describe feelings, thought, and opinions into song lyrics, therefore the writers found a lot of organic imagery in the song lyrics. (3) There is 19 organic imagery in song lyrics, which is the dominant imagery in the song lyrics of Taylor Swift.

French translation and validation of the Movement Imagery Questionnaire-third version (MIQ-3f)

Objectives: Imagery ability is a variable influencing the effectiveness of imagery practice that can be estimated by means of questionnaires. Among them, the Movement Imagery Questionnaire-Revised, translated and validated in French, is widely used by French speakers. However, it does not allow for the distinction between the two visual imagery perspectives (internal vs. external). The Movement Imagery Questionnaire-3 has been recently proposed in the English literature to differentiate between the ease of performing internal visual, external visual and kinesthetic imagery. The aim of this study was to translate and validate a French version of this questionnaire (MIQ-3f). Method: We examined the validity of constructs, internal consistency, and test-retest inter-rate reliability of the visual and kinesthetic items of the MIQ-3f in 272 healthy participants (Mage = 20.26 years, SD = 1.73). Results: The internal consistency (composite reliability scores ≥ 0.88 for the three subscales) and test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficients: 0.87 for visual internal imagery, 0.86 for visual external imagery, and 0.88 for kinesthetic imagery) of the MIQ-3f were satisfactory. The three-factor structure (with 4 items for each factor) was supported by confirmatory factor analysis. The MIQ-3f appears to be a valid and reliable instrument that can be used to assess imagery ability in French speakers.

ANALYSIS OF IMAGERY IN FIVE SELECTED POEMS BY MAYA ANGELOU

This research is qualitative descriptive research that analyzes five selected poems of Maya Angelou “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sing, Still I Rise, Phenomenal Woman, When I Think about My Self and the last is Alone”. The researcher used qualitative method and structural approach to know what kinds of imagery that used in five selected poems by Maya Angelou “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sing, Still I Rise, Phenomenal Woman, When I Think about My Self and the last is Alone”. Then, the data were collected from five poems selected by Maya Angelou. In the process analyzed, the researcher read the poem “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sing, Still I Rise, Phenomenal Woman, When I Think About My Self and the last is Alone” and using five steps based on the technique of analyzing the data by using structural approach to find what kinds of imagery that used in poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sing, Still I Rise, Phenomenal Woman, When I Think About My Self and the last is Alone” by Maya Angelou. Then based on the result of this analyzed, the researcher found there are four types of imagery that Maya Angelou used in his poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sing, Still I Rise, Phenomenal Woman, When I Think About My Self and the last is Alone” Those are visual imagery, auditory imagery, tactile imagery, gustatory imagery and last is kinesthetic imagery, but the kinds of imagery that very dominant used is auditory imagery. Keywords: Poetry, Imagery, Method and Approach

Empirical Musical Imagery beyond the “Mind’s Ear”

Freya Bailes deals with the topic of musical imagery, and she uses embodied cognition as a framework to argue that musical imagery is a multimodal experience. Existing empirical studies of musical imagery are reviewed and Bailes points to future directions for the study of musical imagery as an embodied-cognition phenomenon. Arguing that musical imagery can never be fully disembodied, Bailes moves beyond the idea of auditory imagery as merely a simulation of auditory experience by “the mind’s ear.” Instead, she outlines how imagining sounds involves kinesthetic imagery and she concludes that sound and music are always connected to sensory motor processing.

The Plurality of Perspectives

There is a second problem with Vendler’s proposed reduction of “objective” imaginings (from-the-outside) to “subjective” imaginings (from-the-inside): it dismisses the possibility of seeing oneself from-the-outside while still maintaining internal or embodied perspectives such as kinesthetic imagery. Yet internal and external perspectives can often come together or come apart in interesting ways: there is a plurality of perspectives. Evidence for the claim that an external visual perspective may coexist and align with internal embodied and emotional imagery is explored by drawing on examples from autobiographical memory, cinema, and sports psychology. Observer perspectives are memories in which one sees oneself from-the-outside, but one may still maintain internal embodied and emotional imagery and there need be no inherent feeling of detachment.

Motor experience with a sport-specific implement affects motor imagery

The present study tested whether sport-specific implements facilitate motor imagery, whereas nonspecific implements disrupt motor imagery. We asked a group of basketball players (experts) and a group of healthy controls (novices) to physically perform (motor execution) and mentally simulate (motor imagery) basketball throws. Subjects produced motor imagery when they were holding a basketball, a volleyball, or nothing. Motor imagery performance was measured by temporal congruence, which is the correspondence between imagery and execution times estimated as (imagery time minus execution time) divided by (imagery time plus execution time), as well as the vividness of motor imagery. Results showed that experts produced greater temporal congruence and vividness of kinesthetic imagery while holding a basketball compared to when they were holding nothing, suggesting a facilitation effect from sport-specific implements. In contrast, experts produced lower temporal congruence and vividness of kinesthetic imagery while holding a volleyball compared to when they were holding nothing, suggesting the interference effect of nonspecific implements. Furthermore, we found a negative correlation between temporal congruence and the vividness of kinesthetic imagery in experts while holding a basketball. On the contrary, the implement manipulation did not modulate the temporal congruence of novices. Our findings suggest that motor representation in experts is built on motor experience associated with specific-implement use and thus was subjected to modulation of the implement held. We conclude that sport-specific implements facilitate motor imagery, whereas nonspecific implements could disrupt motor representation in experts.