Sonification of Motor Imagery in the Basketball Jump Shot: Effect on Muscle Activity Amplitude

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to study the effect of AudioVisual pattern on the muscle activity amplitude during mental imagery. For this purpose, 25 female students (20.73 ± 1.56 years old) engaged in mental imagery (internal, external, and kinesthetic) in three conditions: No pattern, Visual pattern, and AudioVisual pattern. The angular velocity of the elbow joint in the basketball jump shot skill was sonified and presented to the subjects as an auditory pattern. The results showed that the muscle activity amplitude in AudioVisual–kinesthetic and AudioVisual–internal (and not external) conditions is higher than for other conditions. Additionally, a positive correlation was observed between Visual–kinesthetic imagery ability and muscle activity amplitude in the AudioVisual pattern condition and in kinesthetic and internal imagery. In addition, the muscle activity amplitude of high and low Visual–kinesthetic imagery ability conditions were only different in the AudioVisual pattern. The superiority of the AudioVisual condition is most likely due to the auditory information presented in this research being closely related to the kinesthetic sense of movement.