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Table 1 Clinical studies involving the mirror system

From: The mirror neuron system in post-stroke rehabilitation

Study

N

Tool

Procedure

Results

p value

Grèzes et al.[32]

12

fMRI

Video recordings of objects, grasping pantomimes.

Significant activation in the left intraparietal area during object observation vs baseline.

p = 0.001

Montgomery et al.[33]

14

fMRI

Videos of communicative hand gestures, object-directed hand movements and word stimuli.

Activations in the inferior parietal lobe and frontal operculum.

p < 0.001

Hamilton and Grafton. [34]

20

fMRI

Handed participants watched twelve sets of videos presented in a pseudorandom order and pressed a key if the film was froze in the middle of the action.

A stronger response was found in regions throughout the fronto-parietal circuits, right inferior parietal lobule and right inferior frontal gyrus extending to the inferior frontal sulcus.

p < 0.001

Gazzola et al.[11]

16

fMRI

Subjects watched either a human or a robot performing various actions. All visual stimuli were video clips lasting between 2.5 and 4 s.

During motor execution active areas were: motor primary in the frontal lobe; sensitive primary and secondary the parietal lobe and the middle temporal gyrus in the temporal lobe.

p < 0.001

Michielsen et al.[2, 23]

22

fMRI

Movement of the hands with observation of the mirror reflex.

The active regions were the precuneus and the posterior cingulate cortex.

p < 0.005

Tanaka and Inui. [35]

12

fMRI

Subjects were instructed to imitate presented postures using their right hand or fingers.

Significant activation was observed in Broca’s area.

p < 0.001

Heiser et al.[36]

14

TMS

Patients watched different videos showing a hand pressing a sequence of 2 (out of 4 possible keys) on a key-press box.

There was a selective deficit of the imitation task for rTMS over the left and right pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus, compared to rTMS over the occipital cortex.

p < 0.005

Stefan et al.[16]

20

TMS

Task that encoded an elementary motor memory.

Observation of movements led to the formation of a lasting specific memory trace in movement representations that resembled that elicited by physical training.

p < 0.005

Oberman et al.[37]

11

EEG

Subjects opened and closed their right hand while watching a video of a moving hand.

Consistent pattern of suppression in the frequency band of interest.

p = 0.001

  1. Abbreviations: TMS, Transcranial magnetic stimulation, EEG, electroencephalography; μ, mu rhythm, fMRI, Functional magnetic resonance imaging, FMS, Fugl-Meyer scale, MP, Mental practice.