Open AccessMy Foot? Motor Imagery‐Evoked Pain, Alternative Strategies and Implications for Laterality Recognition Tasks
Author(s) -
King Rick,
Johnson Mark I,
Ryan Cormac G,
Robinson Victoria,
Martin Denis J,
Punt T David
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
pain medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.893
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1526-4637
pISSN - 1526-2375
DOI - 10.1111/pme.12646
Subject(s) - laterality , foot (prosody) , physical medicine and rehabilitation , motor imagery , medicine , psychology , cognitive psychology , physical therapy , audiology , neuroscience , brain–computer interface , electroencephalography , linguistics , philosophy
Dear Editor:Asking patients to determine the laterality (i.e. left or right) of images depicting parts of the body has been an intriguing development within the management of patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). Such Laterality Recognition Tasks (LRTs) are known to involve the mental rotation of one's own limbs ⇓, activating areas of the brain involved in the execution of related limb movements ⇓ and subsequently considered to have a role in the assessment and treatment of patients with CRPS and other conditions ⇓.As part of routine testing in our clinic, a 35 year old female with CRPS Type II affecting the right foot completed a Foot Laterality Recognition Task in April 2013. Accordingly, she was presented with a series of 48 images on a computer screen, each depicting a foot differing in laterality (left or right), view (dorsum, sole, big toe or heel) or rotation (0, 60, 120, 180, 240 or 300 degrees); images courtesy of Parsons ⇓. She performed well, responding correctly to each image (accuracy = 100%). Median response times (RTs) were similar for images of left (2314 ms) and right (2521 ms) feet. On completing the task, the patient revealed that her approach had been to imagine another person's feet (3rd person strategy) rather than her own. She was subsequently asked to complete the task again, imagining her own feet (1st person …