The reorganization mechanism of brain functional networks by long term actual exercise and exercise imagination training: spectrum and network topology analysis based on EEG.

The study was conducted on young, healthy adults, so results may not apply to patients with neurological impairments such as stroke or Parkinson's disease. The training period was only five days, capturing intermediate-term changes rather than long-term neuroplasticity. The control group improved significantly, indicating that practice effects, test-retest reliability, or simple time passage contributed to performance gains, which complicates the attribution of improvement solely to the specific interventions. The VGI group combined motor imagery with action observation (watching videos), so it is unclear how much of the neural effect was due to imagery versus observation. EEG has limited spatial resolution, so the precise brain structures involved in the network changes cannot be definitively identified.

The study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Shenzhen Basic Research Program, Beijing Nova Program, and STI 2030-Major Projects. No specific conflicts of interest involving commercial entities were declared in the provided text.

Do not conclude that motor imagery is ineffective; rather, recognize that it produces different neural adaptations than physical execution. Furthermore, be cautious of the significant improvement in the no-training control group, which suggests that part of the observed gain in all groups may be due to practice effects or test-retest variability rather than the specific training mechanism.