Researchers from the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the University of Cincinnati’s Academic Medical Center looked at the impact of “mental practice” (the imaginal rehearsal of physical movements) on affected arm movements in stroke patients, as well as changes in cortical mapping in the brain.

Mental practice (MP) is a noninvasive, inexpensive method of enabling repetitive, task-specific practice (RTP) which has been shown in past studies to increase affected arm use and function significantly more than just RTP alone. 

As a next step, this 10-subject case series examined the possibility that cortical plasticity is a mechanism underlying the positive treatment effect from mental practice (MP) when combined with RTP (repetitive task-specific practice). Ten chronic stroke patients (mean = 36.7 months) exhibiting stable, moderate motor deficits, received 30-minute therapy sessions for their affected arms 3 days/week for 10 weeks, emphasizing valued activities of daily living (ADLs).

Dear Belleruth,
I use several of your tapes. I have difficulty when reading to concentrate on what I'm reading.  My mind continues to wonder and cannot remember what I have read. This has been going on for years. So, if I would ever have to take a test, I would panic. Is there a tape that you could recommend? At the moment I have been using your tape of self confidence.
Thanks,
Cathy

Dear Cathy,
The Self-Confidence imagery is a good choice, as would be the imagery for Panic Attacks, which teaches basic self-regulation and relaxation skills, as well as offers imagery that reframes panic to a physiologically similar but far pleasanter condition: exhilaration, as the result of mastery (your heart pounds either way).

Question:

I would love a guided imagery to improve my piano playing.  It isn't exactly anxiety that holds me back - it seems to be a lack of openness or fluidity with the music. I haven't been able to find this anywhere, and I hope you'll consider doing one. I love all the others of yours that I've used.

Tom 

Question:
Ok, I know that your book "Your Sixth Sense: Activating Your Psychic Potential" is a very old book by now, but I was wondering what you said that happens before one would receive psi information that they might hear a high pitched sound or different tones...

Well, since I've been reading it, I have been paying a lot more attention to my thoughts and attempting to find my "inner voice".

So I've noticed that there is always a very high pitched tone in my mind all the time, although it is harder to notice when my brain is in a scramble...but it is still there.

I was wondering if that would mean that I could be receiving intuitive information all the time and i just need to open up the "third eye" to receive it?

Lauren

Researchers from Dalian University of Technology in Dalian, China, set out to explore why five days of integrative body-mind training (IBMT)* improves attentional focus and self-regulation better than relaxation training. The underlying mechanisms were sought by measuring physiological and brain changes at rest before, during, and after 5 days of IBMT and relaxation training.

[*IBMT is a meditation practice developed by Dr. Yi-Yuan Tang, a pioneer in studying neurological effects of meditation, by modifying and simplifying Chinese Tao meditation. It doesn’t focus on thoughts in the mind, but rather a state of restful alertness from a high level of body awareness, augmented by the breath and guided imagery with music.] 

During and after training, the IBMT group showed significantly better physiological reactions in heart rate, respiratory amplitude and rate, and skin conductance response (SCR) than the relaxation controls.

Researchers from the Department of Plastic Surgery of University Medical Center Groningen, in The Netherlands, sought to see whether practicing motor imagery during the immobilization period after flexor tendon injury results in a faster recovery of hand function.

The randomized controlled trial included 28 patients, post-surgery for flexor tendon repair, who were randomly assigned to either an intervention group or a control group.

Researchers from the Dept of Psychology at York University in Toronto find that imagining future success does indeed enhance people’s motivation to achieve success, and that third-person imagery does this more effectively than first person.

Researchers at Texas A&M University Health Sciences Center studied the the effects of varying the amount of physical practice and mental imagery rehearsal on learning basic surgical procedures. Using a sample of 65 second-year medical students, 3 randomized groups received either: (1) 3 sessions of physical practice on suturing a pig''s foot; (2) 2 sessions of physical practice and 1 session of mental imagery rehearsal; or (3) 1 session of physical practice and 2 sessions of imagery rehearsal. All participants then performed a surgery on a live rabbit in the operating theater of a veterinary college under approved conditions. Analysis of variance was applied to pre- and post-treatment ratings of surgical performance.