Mental Timing in Locomotion: Walking Across Real and Imagined Distances

Temporal correspondence between imagined and executed walking durations is equivalent across 5, 10, and 15 meters in 30 healthy adults, with strong positive correlations.

• Why it matters: The study addresses whether motor imagery preserves the timing of real locomotion, a gap highlighted by the need to replicate and extend classic evidence.
• What they did: Thirty healthy adults completed imagined and executed walking over 5, 10, and 15 meters and rated movement imagery using MIQ 3, then compared durations with repeated-measures ANOVA, correlations, Bayesian equivalence tests, and Bland Altman analyses.
• The result: Walking duration increased with distance, but imagined and executed times showed no significant differences; Bayesian equivalence and Bland Altman indicated temporal equivalence and good agreement, while MIQ-3 was not linked to duration differences.