The possibility of quickening walking rehabilitation by imaginary walking

A walking rehabilitation system is proposed which includes both muscle strength enhancement by a walking rehabilitation machine and neurological rehabilitation by imaginary walking. In this paper, we compared the activation in motor area of the brain during real walking and imaginary walking by means of fNIRS (functional Near-InfraRed Spectroscopy). Two subjects participated in the experiment. During imaginary walking, the subjects were instructed to imagine that they were walking with the same pace to a person in the video being shown to the subjects. As a result, the concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin in motor area during imaginary walking was higher than that during real walking in both of the subjects. This was because that it was not necessary to pay attention to the movements of the legs and feet during normal walking on the plain road without any obstacles, while movement planning was required when the subjects imagined their walking in the same way to another person. The experiment result indicated that it is possible to quicken walking rehabilitation by imaginary walking. ICIC International