Tactile Imagery Increases Corticospinal Excitability Assessed by Single Pulse TMS

Motor imagery has long been recognized as an effective method to promote neurorehabilitation by triggering plastic changes in the sensorimotor pathways. Here, we investigated an alternative approach to motor imagery - tactile imagery. By using single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), we evaluated motor evoked potentials (MEPs) to assess corticospinal excitability during kinesthetic motor imagery (kMI), tactile imagery (TI), and tactile stimulation (TS). We found that TI increased corticospinal excitability but to a lesser degree than kMI. TS did not affect corticospinal excitability. Altogether, our study demonstrates that TI influences corticospinal excitability and could serve as a complementary approach to motor kMI in rehabilitation of sensorimotor deficits.