Learning a new move, maintaining a previously mastered move during a temporary motor immobilization, or altering a move pattern to increase its efficacy are situations that anybody can encounter. One means to help individuals handle these situations successfully is the use of motor simulation in combination or not with physical practice. Generally, the simulation process is conceived as a conscious reactivation of previously executed actions stored in memory [1Decety J., Ingvar D.H. Brain structures participating in mental simulation of motor behavior: a neuropsychological interpretation Acta Psychol (Amst.) 1990 ;  73 : 13-24 [cross-ref]

Cliccare qui per andare alla sezione Riferimenti]. More simply, one is engaged in a motor simulation process when the action is imaged (imaged action), when the action is observed (observed action) or when it is verbally described silently or aloud (verbalized action). First, over the past twenty years, neuroimaging technological developments have allowed to show that move simulation, i.e. imaged and observed actions, and its actual execution activate common cortical areas including motor and somatosensorial areas [2Grezes J., Decety J. Functional anatomy of execution, mental simulation, observation and verb generation of actions: a meta-analysis Hum Brain Mapp 2001 ;  12 : 1-19 [cross-ref]

Cliccare qui per andare alla sezione Riferimenti]. Very recently, research has also demonstrated the existence of a neuronal equivalence between a verbalized action and an executed action ([3Fischer M.H., Zwaan R.A. Embodied language: a review of the role of the motor system in language comprehension Q J Exp Psychol (Hove.) 2008 ;  61 : 825-850 [cross-ref]

Cliccare qui per andare alla sezione Riferimenti] for a review) but also between a verbalized action, a simulated action (imaged action or observed action) and a mimed action [4Aziz-Zadeh L., Wilson S.M., Rizzolatti G., Iacoboni M. Congruent embodied representations for visually presented actions and linguistic phrases describing actions Curr Biol 2006 ;  16 : 1818-1823 [cross-ref]

Cliccare qui per andare alla sezione Riferimenti, 5Peran P., Demonet J.F., Cherubini A., Carbebat D., Caltagirone C., Sabatini U. Mental representations of action: the neural correlates of the verbal and motor components Brain Res 2010 ;  1328 : 89-103 [cross-ref]

Cliccare qui per andare alla sezione Riferimenti]. Second, peripheral somatosensory feedback has been shown to be a prerequisite for the access and maintenance of motor representations [6Bosbach S., Cole J., Prinz W., Knoblich G. Inferring another's expectation from action: the role of peripheral sensation Nature Neurosci 2005 ;  8 : 1295-1297 [cross-ref]

Cliccare qui per andare alla sezione Riferimenti]. In the absence of such peripheral sensations, motor representations are supposed to fade and may be no longer reachable. Consequently, it is fair to examine the possibility of generating sensations without concomitantly performing actual movements, for instance by using motor simulation. Many common cortical areas are activated both during simulation and execution of movements. Should motor simulation produce peripheral sensations, we could therefore claim that when practicing motor simulation, we are partly training for the actual execution of movements.