SAN DIEGO—Not long ago, the idea of strengthening a muscle simply by sitting in a quiet corner and thinking, rather than by doing the traditional resistance exercises, might well have been placed more in the realm of science fiction than science. But a Cleveland Clinic Foundation study presented at the Society for Neuroscience’s 31st Annual Meeting suggests that brain plasticity and mental training may allow patients, in effect, to reprogram their brains to carry out activities previously thought to be impossible.

Earlier reports have demonstrated that quadriplegics, merely by thinking, can move a cursor to spell words on a computer screen, and stroke victims have learned to use their paralyzed arms when their contralateral limbs were restrained. The new study has shown that muscle strength can be significantly improved with little resistance, as long as brain effort is high.

I THINK I CAN …

Biomedical engineer Vinoth Ranganathan, MSE, and colleagues from Dr. Guang Yue’s laboratory in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Rehabilitation Medicine reported on findings from their study in which a group of 30 young, healthy volunteers ages 20 to 35 were trained to imagine that they were moving specific muscles in their finger or elbow without physically performing the task.

Twenty subjects trained for 15 minutes a day, five days a week, for a period of 12 weeks. In one group of 10, four fingers on the dominant hand were restrained, and the subjects imagined using the abductor muscle in their little finger. A second group of 10 subjects did the same for the elbow flexor muscles; a third group of 10 served as controls. Surface electromyography and electroencephalography were used to monitor the results of each training session.

Mr. Ranganathan reported that in the mental training groups, certain areas of the brain, including the supplementary motor area, showed cortical signal increases with the mental practice. Limited functional magnetic resonance imaging studies indicated that the prefrontal lobe was involved, as well as the primary sensory motor cortex. The investigators noted that the strength gained during the training was maintained even after the training ended, especially in the group that exercised the abductor muscle of the finger.

In the first group, muscle strength in the finger increased by 35%, and in the second group, elbow flexor strength was enhanced by 13.4%. There were no changes in the control group.

Mr. Ranganathan noted, however, that the training involves intense concentration on the part of the individual. “If you just sit and watch TV, that’s not going to be effective. The part of the brain that controls the muscle has to be highly active; in other words, the brain is trained to generate a stronger signal.” The beauty of the mental training, he added, is that the training is cost-effective. “All you have to do is sit in a quiet place where you can concentrate. You don’t need any equipment. You don’t need to spend a cent.”

MORE MUSCLE

Stroke patients may also benefit from such studies, he told Neurology Reviews, and it is thought that mental training might speed rehabilitation in those with neuromuscular diseases and spinal cord injuries, as well as increase and then maintain strength in the frail elderly, he said.

NR