Quote:
Originally Posted by z1freeride  I did google it and I just find people referencing this "study." I want to see the original study. Where did you hear about it? Is it just hearsay? I can't seem to find the original study by the dude himself. |
I found this on Edmund Jacobson, who apparently inspired Richardson:
- - - -
NEUROMUSCULAR STATES AND MENTAL ACTIVITIES
Following the availability of reliable measurements, Jacobson returned to the relationship between the mind and the motor system. A series of studies, published in the American Journal of Physiology between January, 1930 and April, 1931 measured muscular contraction during the imagining and recalling of various forms of activity. These findings gave form to the hypothesis that participation of the motor system is inseparable from the thought process. In 1927 he observed that well-trained subjects, after becoming thoroughly and deeply relaxed, all reported a period of diminution or disappearance of conscious processes. They could not simultaneously relax and reflect. He later elaborated:
"Tension is part and parcel of what we call the mind. Tension does not exist by itself, but is reflexively integrated into the total organism. The patterns in our muscles vary from moment to moment, constituting in part the modus operandi of our thinking and engage muscles variously all over our body, just as do our grossly visible movements. If a patient imagines he is rowing a boat, we see rhythmic patterns from the arms, shoulders, back and legs as he engages in this act of imagination. The movements…are miniscule".
- - - - -
His study indicates that while imagining an action your body - at a micro level - is replicating the movement.
It seems to me though that in order to replicate the correct body mechanics you would already need to be able to do the action (successfully). Otherwise your replicated mechanics would be incorrect.
Eisho