I recently attended another great course through the NOI Group called “Graded Motor Imagery” (GMI) taught by Bob Johnson. These guys are the industry leaders in all things pain so please check them out. It was great connecting with Bob and learning what I think will be an excellent adjunct to what I am currently doing. So here is the run down on GMI. Overview GMI is a three-pronged sequential process of establishing early, nonpainful motor programming. Johnson calls this synaptic exercise to limit negative peripheral pain expression. GMI is a 3 step process: 1) Laterality reconstruction (Implicit Motor Imagery). 2) Motor imagery (Explicit Motor Imagery). 3) Mirror Therapy. The Neuromatrix Paradigm & Pain States Before delving into the neuromatrix, we first must define pain. Pain is a multiple system output or expression by an individual-specific pain neuromatrix that activates when the brain concludes that body tissues are in danger and action is required. The neuromatrix, like I talk about in this post here, is the nervous system’s coding space and network. It is first and foremost affected by genetics, sculpted by experience, and constantly evolving. It is the entity that makes us who we are—the self. The neurosignature, or neurotag, is an output’s representation in the brain. For example, regions in the brain will activate in response to produce the pain output. This sequence is the neurosignature. Some common activated areas when pain is expressed include both primary and secondary somatosensory cortices, insula cortex, anterior cingulgate cortex, thalamus, basal
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