The use of imagery in rehabilitation

Abstract

When I began my Ph.D. my main interest was in finding a treatment for phantom limb pain (PLP). PLP is a condition wherein amputees experience pain in the missing limb. It affects many amputees and is very difficult to treat. My supervisor, Professor Ian Robertson, suggested that motor imagery, or imagined movements of the body, might be an effective method for treating PLP, by altering the cortical representation of the missing limb. When I began looking into the use of imagery in rehabilitation it became clear that imagery, particularly in the visual and motor modalities, had become a useful rehabilitative tool in a variety of areas, including clinical psychology, health psychology, memory rehabilitation, post-stroke rehabilitation and brain computer interface.