Ertelt Denis, Binkofski Ferdinand
Center for Clinical Trials, University of Luebeck, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein - Campus Luebeck, Lübeck 23562, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
Cognitive Neurology, Department of Neurology, RWTH Aachen University Hospital, Aachen 52062, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Neural Regen Res. 2012 Sep 15;7(26):2063-74. doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1673-5374.2012.26.008.
The mirror neuron system consists of a set of brain areas capable of matching action observation with action execution. One core feature of the mirror neuron system is the activation of motor areas by action observation alone. This unique capacity of the mirror neuron system to match action perception and action execution stimulated the idea that mirror neuron system plays a crucial role in the understanding of the content of observed actions and may participate in procedural learning. These features bear a high potential for neurorehabilitation of motor deficits and of aphasia following stroke. Since the first articles exploring this principle were published, a growing number of follow-up studies have been conducted in the last decade. Though, the combination of action observation with practice of the observed actions seems to constitute the most powerful approach. In the present review, we present the existing studies analyzing the effects of this neurorehabilitative approach in clinical settings especially in the rehabilitation of stroke associated motor deficits and give a perspective on the ongoing trials by our research group. The data obtained up to date showed significant positive effect of action observation on recovery of motor functions of the upper limbs even in the chronic state after stroke, indicating that our approach might become a new standardized add-on feature of modern neurorehabilitative treatment schemes.
镜像神经元系统由一组能够将动作观察与动作执行相匹配的脑区组成。镜像神经元系统的一个核心特征是仅通过动作观察就能激活运动区。镜像神经元系统这种将动作感知与动作执行相匹配的独特能力激发了这样一种观点，即镜像神经元系统在理解所观察动作的内容方面起着关键作用，并且可能参与程序性学习。这些特征对于中风后运动功能障碍和失语症的神经康复具有很大潜力。自从第一批探索这一原理的文章发表以来，在过去十年中进行了越来越多的后续研究。不过，将动作观察与所观察动作的练习相结合似乎是最有效的方法。在本综述中，我们展示了现有研究，这些研究分析了这种神经康复方法在临床环境中的效果，特别是在中风相关运动功能障碍的康复方面，并对我们研究小组正在进行的试验进行了展望。迄今为止获得的数据表明，即使在中风后的慢性期，动作观察对上肢运动功能的恢复也有显著的积极影响，这表明我们的方法可能会成为现代神经康复治疗方案的一种新的标准化附加特征。
