Abstract
Introduction: Neuroimaging studies on neural processes associated with mirror-induced visual illusion (MVI) are growing in number. Previous systematic reviews on these studies used qualitative approaches.Objective: The present study conducted activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis to locate the brain areas for unfolding the neural processes associated with the MVI.Method: We searched the CINAHL, MEDLINE, Scopus, and PubMed databases and identified eight studies (with 14 experiments) that met the inclusion criteria.Results: Contrasting with a rest condition, strong convergence in the bilateral primary and premotor areas and the inferior parietal lobule suggested top-down motor planning and execution. In addition, convergence was identified in the ipsilateral precuneus, cerebellum, superior frontal gyrus, and superior parietal lobule, clusters corresponding to the static hidden hand indicating self-processing operations, somatosensory processing, and motor control. When contrasting with an active movement condition, additional substantial convergence was revealed in visual-related areas, such as the ipsilateral cuneus, fusiform gyrus, middle occipital gyrus (visual area V2) and lingual gyrus, which mediate basic visual processing.Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, the current meta-analysis is the first to reveal the visualization, mental rehearsal and motor-related processes underpinning the MVI and offers theoretical support on using MVI as a clinical intervention for post-stroke patients.
Highlights
Neuroimaging studies on neural processes associated with mirror-induced visual illusion (MVI) are growing in number
The search terms under mirror therapy included “mirror therapy,” “mirror visual illusion,” and “mirror illusion,” whereas those under neuroimaging modalities included “functional magnetic resonance imaging,” “positron emission tomography,” “fMRI,” and “PET.” Additional articles were manually searched from the reference lists of the included articles and existing systematic reviews
Nine experiments in seven studies (Dohle et al, 2004; Matthys et al, 2009; Numata et al, 2013; Wang et al, 2013a; Fritzsch et al, 2014; Diers et al, 2015; Milde et al, 2015) required the participants to engage in active movements of the right hand in the Mirror-induced visual illusion (MVI) paradigm, whereas four experiments in four studies involved the active movement of the left hand (Dohle et al, 2004; Numata et al, 2013; Wang et al, 2013a; Fritzsch et al, 2014) (Table 2)
Summary
The present study conducted activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis to locate the brain areas for unfolding the neural processes associated with the MVI. Method: We searched the CINAHL, MEDLINE, Scopus, and PubMed databases and identified eight studies (with 14 experiments) that met the inclusion criteria
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