[Possibilities of objective assessment of the course of activation in ideomotor training]

An active exploration of movement tasks is accompanied with central nervous activation. Its systematical examination needs a teamwork of scientists of various branches of knowledge (i.e. physiology, psychology, sport sciences). Mental training (motor imagination - MI) was chosen as a model for such examinations. In connection with the execution of MI there are characteristic chances of the mean alpha frequency of the EEG, heart rate, respiration rate and skin conductance. The time course of these parameters depends on the number, the duration and the sequence of MI. A graduated submaximal load on ergometer has no influence on the course of the examined parameters. Our investigation allows the conclusion that different activation processes go on within different subsystems during the execution of MI. From a physiological point of view it seems to be necessary that a concrete paradigm of MI must be examined concerning the course of the parameters and, thus, to guarantee the effort of MI.