Lanata Antonio, Sebastiani Laura, Di Gruttola Francesco, Di Modica Stefano, Scilingo Enzo Pasquale, Greco Alberto
Department of Information Engineering & Research Centre E. Piaggio, School of Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Front Neurosci. 2020 Jan 15;13:1431. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2019.01431. eCollection 2019.
This study investigates the assessment of motor imagery (MI) ability in humans. Commonly, MI ability is measured through two methodologies: a self-administered questionnaire (MIQ-3) and the mental chronometry (MC), which measures the temporal discrepancy between the actual and the imagined motor tasks. However, both measures rely on subjects' self-assessment and do not use physiological measures. In this study, we propose a novel set of features extracted from the nonlinear dynamics of the eye gaze signal to discriminate between good and bad imagers. To this aim, we designed an experiment where twenty volunteers, categorized as good or bad imagers according to MC, performed three tasks: a motor task (MT), a visual Imagery task (VI), and a kinaesthetic Imagery task (KI). Throughout the experiment, the subjects' eye gaze was continuously monitored using an eye-tracking system. Eye gaze time series were analyzed through recurrence quantification analysis of the reconstructed phase space and compared between the two groups. Statistical results have shown how nonlinear eye behavior can express an inner dynamics of imagery mental process and may be used as a more objective and physiological-based measure of MI ability.
本研究调查了人类运动想象（MI）能力的评估。通常，MI能力通过两种方法来测量：自我管理问卷（MIQ - 3）和心理计时法（MC），后者测量实际运动任务与想象运动任务之间的时间差异。然而，这两种测量方法都依赖于受试者的自我评估，且未使用生理测量方法。在本研究中，我们提出了一组从眼动信号的非线性动力学中提取的新特征，以区分想象能力强和弱的人。为此，我们设计了一项实验，根据MC将20名志愿者分为想象能力强和弱的两组，他们执行三项任务：一项运动任务（MT）、一项视觉想象任务（VI）和一项动觉想象任务（KI）。在整个实验过程中，使用眼动追踪系统持续监测受试者的眼动。通过对重构相空间的递归定量分析来分析眼动时间序列，并在两组之间进行比较。统计结果表明，非线性眼动行为如何能够表达想象心理过程的内在动力学，并且可以用作一种更客观的、基于生理的MI能力测量方法。
