Determination of the Effects of Motor Imagery on Learning Infant Massage

Overview

Motor imagery is the mental rehearsal of simple or complex motor movements in which no clear body movement occurs. It can also be defined as the mental simulation of movement without revealing any real motor movement. Studies have shown that similar brain regions are activated during the performance of the movement and the imagery of the movement. According to the results obtained from advanced imaging techniques, it has been reported that activations occur in similar areas during motor imagery and physical performance, including brain areas such as premotor areas, parietal lobe, basal ganglia, anterior cingulate cortex, and cerebellum. When the literature is examined, it has been seen that motor imagery applications are used in many different areas. In 2021, the effect of motor imagery training on students' motor imagery levels and practice in the education of medical school students by Collet et al. was investigated. As a result of the training, it was reported that motor skills improved and it strengthened the learning of medical skills.

Infantile colic was first defined in 1954 by Wessel et al. The incidence of infantile colic varies between 10-30%. There was no study showing the general colic frequency in Turkey, however, in a study conducted in the Eastern Anatolia Region in 2005, the incidence of infantile colic was reported as 51.1%. Although the causes of colic are not fully explained, food allergy or lactose intolerance, hypersensitivity, abnormal peristalsis or excessive gas, tension and stress in the family, swallowing air during bottle feeding or excessive crying, gastro-esophageal reflux, low birth weight, psychosocial It is thought that factors such as problems cause colic. Thus, in physiotherapy education, there are many practical lectures. In the recent years, motor imagery has been used to teach exercises to the patients who need physiotherapy like stroke patients. Thus, it is considered that motor imagery can be used in the education and in the literature, there are papers which investigate the effects of motor imagery among the students of nursing and medicine. In conclusion, the aim is to see whether this method can be used as a new teaching method among physiotherapy students, thus this may bring the students more familiar for the use in their future clinical practices.