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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Daniel EavesORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Introduction: For people who have had a stroke, recovering upper-limb function is a barrier to independence. When movement is diffcult, mental practice can be used to complement physical therapy. In this within-participants study we investigated the effects of combined action observation and motor imagery (AO + MI) therapy on upper-limb recovery in chronic stroke survivors.Methods: A Graeco-Latin Square design was used to counterbalance four mental practice conditions (AO + MI, AO, MI, Control) across four cup-stacking tasks of increasing complexity. Once a week, for five consecutive weeks, participants (n = 10) performed 16 mental practice trials under each condition. Each trial displayed a 1st person perspective of a cup-stacking task performed by an experienced model. For AO, participants watched each video and responded to an occasional color cue. For MI, participants imagined the effort and sensation of performing the action; cued by a series of still-images. For combined AO + MI, participants observed a video of the action while they simultaneously imagined performing the same action in real-time. At three time points (baseline; post-test; twoweek retention test) participants physically executed the three mentally practiced cup-stacking tasks, plus a fourth unpractised sequence (Control), as quickly and accurately as possible.Results: Mean movement execution times were significantly reduced overall in the post-test and the retention test compared to baseline. At retention, movement execution times were significantly shorter for combined AO + MI compared to both MI and the Control. Individual participants reported clinically important changes in quality of life (Stroke Impact Scale) and positive qualitative experiences of AO + MI (social validation).Discussion: These results indicate that when physical practice is unsuitable, combined AO + MI therapy could offer an effective adjunct for neurorehabilitation in chronic stroke survivors.
Author(s): Binks JA, Emerson JR, Scott MW, Wilson C, VanSchaik P, Eaves DL
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Frontiers in Neurology
Year: 2023
Volume: 14
Print publication date: 02/03/2023
Online publication date: 02/03/2023
Acceptance date: 06/02/2023
Date deposited: 02/03/2023
ISSN (electronic): 1664-2295
Publisher: Frontiers Research Foundation
URL: https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2023.1097422
DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1097422
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