This study aimed:

– to investigate the age- and gender-related effect on motor imagery (MI) in vividness and chronometry capabilities;

– to examine the relationship between these two dimensions of MI.

Seventy-two (47% of men) good imagers including 41 young subjects [mean±standard deviation (M±SD): 22.1±3.1 years] and 31 older subjects (M±SD: 72.6±5.4 years) were assessed on MI vividness using the revised version of the Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire (VMIQ-2) and on the performances on the real Timed Up and Go (rTUG) test and its imagined version (iTUG). The main outcome variables were the VMIQ-2 score (each modality) and the delta-TUG (difference between realized rTUG and iTUG).

Mental vividness was affected by aging with a loss of visual dominance in favor of kinesthetic imagery in older subjects compared to younger ones (P<0.05). rTUG and iTUG were performed faster in young than in old subjects, but no difference between the groups were found in chronometry measured by delta-TUG (P>0.05). Vividness capabilities were similar between men and women, but chronometry was better in women than men (i.e. shorter delta-TUG; P<0.05). VMIQ-2 scores were not associated with delta-TUG in the adjusted model, while only gender was significantly associated with delta-TUG.

This study was revealed:

– an age-related transfer from a visual to a kinesthetic MI ability, but no impact on mental chronometry;

– a gender effect on mental chronometry without any impact on mental vividness;

– no association between vividness and chronometry capabilities.