This figure shows that the mental practice resulted in a similar reorganization of the brain/ Pascual-Leone later wrote that practice changes the brain, even if the practice is mental because neuroplasticity is an intrinsic property of the nervous system .

• Figure 1: Average cortical output maps for the finger flexors of the trained hand in subjects undergoing daily physical versus mental practice. Note the similarity in output maps with either form of practice.
• ‘Cortical output’ is the average amount of activity measured in the motor cortex.
• The overall message of this study, taken from the paper, is “Plasticity is an obligatory consequence of all neural activity (even mental practice), and environmental pressures, functional significance, and experience are critical factors.” P 395-6.