{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T03:02:14Z","timestamp":1790737334178,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":51,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,2,7]],"date-time":"2023-02-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1675728000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia"},{"name":"PRIN 2020"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JCM"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This preliminary study introduces a novel action observation therapy (AOT) protocol associated with electroencephalographic (EEG) monitoring to be used in the future as a rehabilitation strategy for the upper limb in patients with subacute stroke. To provide initial evidence on the usefulness of this method, we compared the outcome of 11 patients who received daily AOT for three weeks with that of patients who undertook two other approaches recently investigated by our group, namely intensive conventional therapy (ICT), and robot-assisted therapy combined with functional electrical stimulation (RAT-FES). The three rehabilitative interventions showed similar arm motor recovery as indexed by Fugl-Meyer\u2019s assessment of the upper extremity (FMA_UE) and box and block test (BBT). The improvement in the FMA_UE was yet more favourable in patients with mild\/moderate motor impairments who received AOT, in contrast with patients carrying similar disabilities who received the other two treatments. This suggests that AOT might be more effective in this subgroup of patients, perhaps because the integrity of their mirror neurons system (MNS) was more preserved, as indexed by EEG recording from central electrodes during action observation. In conclusion, AOT may reveal an effective rehabilitative tool in patients with subacute stroke; the EEG evaluation of MNS integrity may help to select patients who could maximally benefit from this intervention.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jcm12041327","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,2,8]],"date-time":"2023-02-08T01:32:05Z","timestamp":1675819925000},"page":"1327","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["Action Observation Therapy for Arm Recovery after Stroke: A Preliminary Investigation on a Novel Protocol with EEG Monitoring"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1976-0048","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sara","family":"Boni","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Medicine, Ferrara University, 44121 Ferrara, Italy"},{"name":"Iit@Unife Center for Translational Neurophysiology, Istituto Italiano Di Tecnologia, 44121 Ferrara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Martina","family":"Galluccio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Iit@Unife Center for Translational Neurophysiology, Istituto Italiano Di Tecnologia, 44121 Ferrara, Italy"},{"name":"Doctoral Program in Translational Neurosciences and Neurotechnologies, Ferrara University, 44121 Ferrara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8681-3090","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andrea","family":"Baroni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neuroscience and Rehabilitation Department, Ferrara University Hospital, 44121 Ferrara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Carlotta","family":"Martinuzzi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neuroscience and Rehabilitation Department, Ferrara University Hospital, 44121 Ferrara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Giada","family":"Milani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Iit@Unife Center for Translational Neurophysiology, Istituto Italiano Di Tecnologia, 44121 Ferrara, Italy"},{"name":"Doctoral Program in Translational Neurosciences and Neurotechnologies, Ferrara University, 44121 Ferrara, Italy"},{"name":"Neuroscience and Rehabilitation Department, Ferrara University Hospital, 44121 Ferrara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4263-7566","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marco","family":"Emanuele","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Iit@Unife Center for Translational Neurophysiology, Istituto Italiano Di Tecnologia, 44121 Ferrara, Italy"},{"name":"Doctoral Program in Translational Neurosciences and Neurotechnologies, Ferrara University, 44121 Ferrara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2061-9922","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sofia","family":"Straudi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neuroscience and Rehabilitation Department, Ferrara University Hospital, 44121 Ferrara, Italy"},{"name":"Neuroscience and Rehabilitation Department, Ferrara University, 44121 Ferrara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Luciano","family":"Fadiga","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Iit@Unife Center for Translational Neurophysiology, Istituto Italiano Di Tecnologia, 44121 Ferrara, Italy"},{"name":"Neuroscience and Rehabilitation Department, Ferrara University, 44121 Ferrara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Thierry","family":"Pozzo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Iit@Unife Center for Translational Neurophysiology, Istituto Italiano Di Tecnologia, 44121 Ferrara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,2,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"439","DOI":"10.1161\/CIRCRESAHA.116.308413","article-title":"Global Burden of Stroke","volume":"120","author":"Feigin","year":"2017","journal-title":"Circ. 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