A study of the neural mechanism underlying brain illusion for rehabilitation therapeutic interventions

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Brain illusion therapy is one of the promising rehabilitation therapeutic interventions, however, the neural basis of the therapeutic effect remains unknown. We investigated human brain activities using magnetoencephalographic recording and functional magnetic resonance imaging when subjects viewed the mirror reflection of their own hand holding a pencil and also when subjects felt a rubber hand as their own hand. Strong activation was induced in the left primary motor cortex when the subjects viewed the mirror reflection of the left hand looking like the right hand whereas the neural activity in the medial prefrontal cortex was associated with the illusion of touching their own hand. These findings suggest that specific brain regions are activated during brain illusion: the motor cortex is activated in the readiness process for execution such the feeling of hand movement whereas the prefrontal cortex is activated in the cognitive process such the feeling of ownership of the hand.