Motor Imagery and Rehabilitation of Orthopaedic Patients

Can Mental Training Based on Motor Imagery Speed up the Rehabilitation of Walking? Efficacy of a Controlled Procedure and Neurofunctional Bases of Recovery in Patients With Total Knee Arthroplasty

Status

UNKNOWN

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Observational

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT03370146

Enrollment

100

Registered

2017-12-12

Start date

2015-03-17

Completion date

2018-10-30

Last updated

2017-12-13

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Orthopedic Disorder

Brief summary

Motor imagery is increasingly used as a plasticity-booster to complement conventional rehabilitation. Here the investigators test the hypothesis that the combination of mental training with conventional rehabilitation may speed up the recovery in patients with total knee arthroplasty. The investigators also characterize the brain correlates of such recovery with imagery tasks for virtual reality environments.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALMental training based on Motor Imagery

Patients of the experimental group will be instructed to imagine walking, from a first person perspective, focusing on the kinaesthetic sensations typically associated with the movement. The motor imagery training will be performed using the support of a laptop, on which there will be presented complex static scenes, representing different kind of paths with different landmarks to reach during the mental walking.

BEHAVIORALCognitive training

Patients of the control group 1 will undergo a general cognitive training, not based on motor imagery.

BEHAVIORALEvaluation of gait abilities

All the subjects included in the trial will undergo a series of behavioral test for the evaluation of gai abilities

Study design

Observational model

COHORT

Time perspective

PROSPECTIVE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

45 Years to 80 Years

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

* Right handed * No contraindication to the fMRI exam

Exclusion criteria

* Contraindication to the fMRI exam

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Speed of walking	20 days	The speed of walking recorded in total knee arthroplasty patients of the experimental group will be compared with the same measure recorded in both control groups.
BOLD (blood oxygen level-dependent) activity	20 days	The BOLD activity recorded during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in TKA patients of the experimental group will be compared with the same measure recorded in both control groups.

Countries

Italy

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026