Motor imagery and overt movement have been hypothesized to be functionally equivalent. At the same time there is evidence that hints at distinct mechanisms of both processes. To explore this disparity, we investigated whether prior imagined movements had the same effect as prior overt movements on motor adaptation performance during a subsequent reach. Additionally, we aimed to identify neuronal correlates of motor imagery predicting such motor adaptation.Movement kinematics (exoskeleton robot, Kinarm Lab) and EEG of 60 participants were recorded to investigate direction-specific adaptation during a reach of the right arm in an interference force-field paradigm. We compared performance of three experimental groups: 1) control (no prior movement) 2) active (overt) prior movement, and 3) motor imagery of prior movement.In line with previous research, we found that participants in the active group adapted to opposing force-fields, while the control group did not. Participants in the motor imagery group adapted as well but to a smaller extent. In addition, we demonstrated that event related synchronization of oscillations in alpha and beta band in the contralateral hemisphere in sensorimotor areas during a simple motor imagery task predicted motor adaptation performance. Taken together, our results indicate that motor imagery and overt movements share similar neuronal processes, suggesting that motor imagery can be leveraged to improve the performance of linked overt movements. People with stronger oscillatory modulation during motor imagery seem to have better imagery proficiency and might be able to benefit from linked imagined movements to a greater extent.Reaching trajectories