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

脑错觉治疗是一种很有前途的康复治疗干预措施，但其治疗效果的神经基础尚不清楚。我们使用脑磁图记录和功能磁共振成像来研究人类的大脑活动，当受试者看到自己握着铅笔的手的镜像反射时，以及当受试者感觉到橡皮手就是自己的手时。当受试者看到看起来像右手的左手的镜像反射时，在左侧初级运动皮质中诱导了强烈的激活，而内侧前额叶皮质的神经活动与触摸自己的手的错觉有关。这些发现表明，在大脑错觉中，特定的大脑区域被激活：在准备执行的过程中，运动皮质被激活，如手运动的感觉，而前额叶皮质在认知过程中被激活，如手的所有权感觉。

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.