Brain Activity on Observation of Another Person’s Action: A Magnetoencephalographic Study

So we still don't know if action observation works in stroke rehab and the protocols for it. You'll just have to completely guess on your own.

Brain Activity on Observation of Another Person’s Action: A Magnetoencephalographic Study 

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Jumpei Mizuno ,^*1 Masashi Kawamura ,^*1 and Minoru Hoshiyama ^*1Affiliations¹Nagoya University

*Mizuno, Kawamura, and Hoshiyama are with the Dept. of Occupational Therapy, Graduate School of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan. Hoshiyama is also with the Brain & Mind Research Center, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan.

Address author correspondence to Minoru Hoshiyama at hosiyama@met.nagoya-u.ac.jp.

Volume: 22 Issue: 4 Pages: 377-390

https://doi.org/10.1123/mc.2017-0053

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Brain activity was recorded using a whole-head magnetoencephalography system followed by coherence analysis to assess neural connectivity in 10 healthy right-handed adults to clarify differences in neural connectivity in brain regions during action observation from several perspectives. The subjects were instructed to observe and memorize or imitate the hand action from a first-person or second-person visual perspective. The brain activity in coherence was modified among frontal and central, sensorimotor, and mirror neuron system-related regions based on the visual perspectives of finger movements. The regional activity in coherence changed similarly under the imitation and observation tasks compared with the condition of observing static hand figures. The information from different visual perspectives of body movements was processed in the frontal–central regions related to sensorimotor processes and partially in mirror neuron system.