Mirror neuron therapy for hemispatial neglect patients.
Mirror neuron system(MNS) based therapy has been employed to treat stroke induced movement disorders. However, its potential effects on patients with hemispatial neglect were uninvestigated. The present study set out to test the therapeutic efficiency of video watching of series of hand actions/movements (protocol A) in two patients with left hemispatial neglect, due to the right hemisphere stroke. The video containing dynamic landscape of natural scene or cities but not human/animals was used as the protocol B. The "ABA" training procedure for 3 weeks therefore allows us to internally control the individual differences. Before and after each week of training, the Chinese behavioral inattention test- Hongkong version (CBIT-HK) was implemented to evaluate the hemispatial neglect severity. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment was implemented in two health subjects to reveal the difference of brain activation between protocol A and B. The results showed that protocol A rather than protocol B significantly improved the CBIT-HK scores at first and third weeks, respectively. Protocol A induced more bilateral activations including right inferior parietal lobe (supramarginal gyrus), which belongs to MNS and is also critical region resulting to hemineglect.


CONCLUSIONS
MNS activation can provide a novel therapy for hemispatial neglect patients.
1] Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing. 210029, China.
Wei
W
Wang
1] Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Drum Tower Hospital of Nanjing University Medical School, 321 Zhongshan Road, Nanjing, China.
Xin
X
Zhang
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing. 210029, China.
Xiangtong
X
Ji
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing. 210029, China.
Qian
Q
Ye
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing. 210029, China.
Wenli
W
Chen
The affiliated hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, China.
Jun
J
Ni
The affiliated hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, China.
Guangyu
G
Shen
Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Drum Tower Hospital of Nanjing University Medical School, 321 Zhongshan Road, Nanjing, China.
Bing
B
Zhang
School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing. 210097, China.
Ti-Fei
TF
Yuan
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing. 210029, China. Shanghai [2] University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai. 201203, China
Chunlei
C
Shan
D001519:Behavior; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D059167:Mirror Neurons / Q000473:pathology*; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000473:pathology; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D020521:Stroke / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D055815:Young Adult