Is heart rate variability affected by distinct motor imagery strategies?

Although some studies have reported significant changes in autonomic responses according to the perspective-taking during motor imagery [first person perspective (1P) and third person perspective (3P)], investigations on how the strategies adopted to mentally simulate a given movement affect the heart rate variability (HRV) seem so far unexplored. Twenty healthy subjects mentally simulated the movement of middle-finger extension in 1P and 3P, while electrocardiogram was recorded. After each task, the level of easiness was self-reported. Motor imagery ability was also assessed through the revised version of Movement Imagery Questionnaire (MIQ-R) and a mental chronometry index. The traditional measures of HRV in the time- and frequency-domain were compared between 1P and 3P tasks by using Student's t-test for dependent samples. The MIQ-R results showed that subjects had the same facility to imagine movements in 1P or 3P. The mental chronometry index revealed a similar temporal course only between 1P and execution, while the 3P strategy had a shorter duration. Additionally, the subjective report was similar between the experimental tasks. Regarding the HRV measures, the low frequency component, in log-transformed unit, was significantly higher (p = 0.017) in 1P than 3P, suggesting a higher activity of the sympathetic system during 1P. This log-transformed HRV parameter seems to be more sensitive than normalized values for the assessment of the motor imagery ability, together with questionnaires, scales and mental chronometry.