Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Background: Stroke rehabilitation help restore lost function and re integrates the stroke survivors in to the society. Based on mirror neuron system, mental practice (MP) does cognitive rehearsal of activities that involves same cortical changes as physical practice in stroke survivors. Objective: To determine the comparative efficacy of a mental practice (MP) intervention versus a mirror therapy (MT) intervention on upper limb motor function after stroke. Methodology: A thirty acute stroke subjects were assigned to the mental practice (MP; n-15) or to the mirror therapy (MT; n-15) group. Subjects were assessed before and after 7 weeks of intervention using Action Research Arm Test (ARAT). MP group was administered functional activity based visual motor imagery training and MT group was administered functional activity based mirror therapy training. Both groups had five tasks of real life rehearsal strategies and each session consisted of60minutes, 3 days in a week. Results: After the intervention, means of ARAT using an ‘independent t-test’ showed subjects in the mental practice (MP) group were significantly higher than those of subjects in the mirror therapy (MT) group. There is a statistically significant difference in grasp, gross, pinch, grip and total score between the groups. Conclusion: Mental practice is a promising adjuvant therapy to physiotherapy practice with minimal direct supervision and minimal expense. It’s feasible to self-administer in virtually any environment with no specialized equipment. Key words: Mental practice, Motor imagery, Mirror therapy, Stroke rehabilitation, Plasticity.
M et al. (Fri,) studied this question.