Table 3.

Modulating variables of the movement representation process.

Domain	Variables	Influence
Physical MI *** AO *	- Levels of physical activity	- Greater physical activity levels might generate greater facility in constructing the movement due to the experience, development, and elaboration of habitual motor schemes.
	- Perceived of mental fatigue	- The presence of high fatigue levels can affect attention, thereby limiting the brain’s construction of movement.
	- Disturbances in sensorimotor integration	- The presence of somatosensory disturbances can generate aberrant sensorimotor schemes that could affect the movement’s construction, thereby leading to a decreased ability to generate motor images.
Cognitive–Evaluator MI *** AO *	- Understanding motor gestures and verbal instructions	- Understanding movements that are not physically elaborated can improve the planning phases of movement because emotional and cognitive limitations can be reduced.
	- Context	- The development of the movement in family and specific contexts could facilitate imagination and observation.
	- Functioning of the working memory	- Better functioning of the working memory could increase the ability to collect the provided information and its subsequent consolidation into long-term memory, thereby facilitating the motor learning process.
	- Self-efficacy levels	- Greater self-perception of the ability to generate motor images could enhance the brain’s ability to construct motor images.
	- Attention levels	- Maintaining attention could facilitate the mental construction of movements and the total effort dedicated to that construction.
	- Expectations	- Expectations of the effects of movement representation techniques might influence the efficiency of the motor learning process.
	- Perception of difficulty	- Greater perception of the difficulty could lead to a reduced ability to generate motor representation and thereby worsen motor learning.
Motivational–Emotional MI *** AO ***	- Motivation (reasons, intention, and desires)	- Higher motivation levels could lead directly to a better predisposition towards the learning process and, therefore, on the effects of movement representation techniques.
	- Fear of movement	- Higher kinesiophobia levels can lead to an interruption of the motion representation process, thereby impairing the motor learning process.
Direct modulation MI *** AO *	- Ability to create motor images	- The effectiveness of MI might depend on the ability to create motor images. This aspect can be influenced by other domains.
	- Synchronization	- Greater time congruence between physical practice and motion representation could facilitate the motor learning process.
	- Activity of the autonomous nervous system	- Greater neurovegetative activity could indicate higher neurophysiological activity of the sensoriomotor cortical–subcortical networks, indicating greater effort dedicated to the task, greater attention, and less fatigue, thereby favoring motor learning.

* low susceptibility; ** moderate susceptibility; *** high susceptibility. Abbreviations: AO, action observation; MI, motor imagery.