We studied the motor simulation processes involved in concurrent action observation and motor imagery (AO+MI) using motor evoked potentials induced by transcranial magnetic stimulation. During congruent AO+MI, participants were shown videos of a model's hand performing rhythmical finger movements, and they imagined moving the same finger of their own hand in synchrony with the observed finger. During incongruent AO+MI, the imagery task involved a different finger from the observed one. As expected, congruent AO+MI yielded robust facilitatory effects, relative to baseline, only in the effector involved in the task. Incongruent AO+MI produced equally pronounced effects in the effector that was engaged in MI, whilst no corticospinal facilitation was found for the effector corresponding to the observed action. We further replicated that engaging in pure AO without MI does not produce reliable effects. These results do not support the proposal that observed and imagined action are both simulated at the level of the primary motor cortex. Rather, motor imagery alone can sufficiently explain the observed effects in both AO+MI conditions. This bears clear implications for the application of AO+MI procedures in sport and neurorehabilitation.

中文翻译：

---

在同时进行的动作观察和运动成像期间，仅运动成像会驱动皮质脊髓兴奋性。

我们使用经颅磁刺激诱发的运动诱发电位研究了同时进行动作观察和运动成像（AO + MI）的运动模拟过程。在一致的AO + MI期间，向参与者展示了一个模型的手进行有节奏的手指运动的视频，他们想象与自己观察到的手指同步移动同一只手指。在不一致的AO + MI期间，成像任务涉及到与观察到的手指不同的手指。正如预期的那样，相对于基线，一致的AO + MI仅在参与该任务的效应子中产生了强大的促进作用。不一致的AO + MI在参与MI的效应子中产生同样显着的效应，而未发现与观察到的作用相对应的效应子的皮质脊髓促进作用。我们进一步复制了没有MI的纯AO不会产生可靠的效果。这些结果不支持这样的提议，即观察到的动作和想象到的动作都在主运动皮层水平上进行了模拟。相反，仅运动图像就足以解释在AO + MI两种情况下观察到的效果。这对于在运动和神经康复中应用AO + MI程序具有明显的意义。