Action Observation of Own Hand Movement Enhances Event-Related Desynchronization

A stroke occurs when blood flow to the brain is critically reduced or blocked, potentially resulting in motor paralysis. One of the most promising and effective neurorehabilitation methods for strokes is a closed-loop brain-computer interface (BCI) based on the motor imagery (MI). For the design of MI-based BCI, action observation (AO) during MI facilitates the detection of a user's motor intention. In this paper, we investigated whether or not the AO's targeted objects (the hand of a participant or another person) affects brain activity during MI. To investigate the differences in brain activity induced by the targeted objection, we recorded electroencephalography (EEG) data of 15 healthy right-handed males during three different conditions: 1) MI and AO of a participant's hand (MI + ownAO); 2) MI and AO of a non-participant's hand (MI + otherAO); and 3) MI only. The results showed that the event-related desynchronization (ERD) responses in the alpha frequency band (8-13 Hz) during MI + ownAO over the sensorimotor area (at the C3 and C4 channel locations) were stronger than those during the other two conditions. The results also showed that the difference between the participants' and non-participants' hands affected ERD responses during MI + ownAO and MI + otherAO.