## 4 Discussion  
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of presenting an AudioVisual pattern on the intensity of muscle activity during mental imagery. For this purpose, 25 female students with an average age of 20.73 years were engaged in mental imagery in three different conditions: No pattern, Visual pattern, and AudioVisual pattern. The subjects were asked to perform all three types of external, internal, and kinesthetic imagery. Before each performance, the desired pattern was presented to them twice and the subjects could imagine the task. Additionally, the visual mental imagery ability (internal, external, and kinesthetic) and auditory imagery ability of the subjects were assessed. The results revealed that there is a significant difference between the intensity of elbow extensor muscle activity in different imagery conditions (No pattern, Visual pattern, and AudioVisual pattern) in favor of AudioVisual pattern conditions. After comparing different types of imagery (i.e., external, internal, and kinesthetic) in different conditions (No pattern, Visual pattern, and AudioVisual pattern), it was found that the intensity of muscle activity is significantly higher in AudioVisual-kinesthetic than in other conditions (except for AudioVisual-internal imagery). The similar performance of subjects in the AudioVisual-kinesthetic and AudioVisual-internal imagery conditions can be explained based on the results of research that has studied the neural basis of imagery. [PERSON], [PERSON], [PERSON] and [PERSON] [55] showed that visual and kinesthetic imagery share similar  
Figure 5: Amplitude of muscle activity in three conditions of No pattern, Visual pattern, and AudioVisual pattern, and in two categories of high and low Visual–kinesthetic imagery ability **** \(p<0.0001\). neural networks. However, some studies have observed destinations in neurophysiological brain mechanisms in kinesthetic and visual imagery [56, 57]. [PERSON] et al. [57] showed that kinesthetic imagery leads to event-related desynchronization of motor-associated brain rhythms. By contrast, visual imagery results in event-related synchronization of \(\alpha\)- and \(\beta\)-wave activity. They also showed that in all kinesthetic imagery subjects, the activity in the frontal cortex is suppressed during motor imagery, while in the visual imagery subjects, the frontal cortex is always active. Another important result of this research was that there is a significant positive relationship between Visual-kinesthetic imagery ability and the intensity of muscle activity in AudioVisual pattern conditions in kinesthetic and internal (and not external) perspectives. This relationship was not observed in the condition of Visual pattern and No pattern conditions. These results are in line with the research of [PERSON] [13] and [PERSON], [PERSON], [PERSON] and [PERSON] [58]. [PERSON] [13] showed that covert muscle excitation (muscle activation) was associated with imaging ability and clarity. [PERSON] et al. [58] found that high kinesthetic imagery vividness predicted a high performance after training. Higher muscle activity in subjects with higher kinesthetics in visual imagery and AudioVisual conditions in the present study is in line with the research of [PERSON] et al. [58]. The results of this research also determined that the use of sound related to the movement pattern (sound related to changes in the speed of the elbow joint during the performance) can affect the intensity of the elbow extensor muscles during mental imagery (at least in kinesthetic and internal imagery). Although past research has confirmed the positive effect of auditory imagery on imagery vividness [33, 59] and performance [34], the sounds used in these studies were often auditory cues (in music) [59] or sound caused by the one's movement (hitting the ground or sound from sports equipment) [34] and not related to one's movement pattern.