Article

A great deal of research has focused on demonstrating the existence
of mirror neurons in humans and the factors that modulate their activity after
their discovery in macaques approximately two decades ago. OBJECTIVES: With this
in mind, the parieto-frontal mirror neuron system (MNS) has been described as a
brain network that is activated when either an action is executed or as it is
observed. The clinical importance of these findings have been related with
neurological and psychiatric disorders, but no one has focused until now on the
possibilities that this network could provide to achieve better results in
neurosurgical patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: One of the applications of the MNS
with clinical significance is the observation based rehabilitation programs.
These programs have demonstrated their usefulness in certain pathologic entities
but as yet there are no reports regarding neurosurgical patients in the
literature. The activation of brain areas during observation of motor actions
which are also activated when those actions are executed define the
physiopathological principle of this kind of therapy that has been shown to get
better results than standard rehabilitation programs and that should also be
tested on neurosurgical patients. If observation based rehabilitation is
considered, the MNS should be as intact as possible. Indeed, the surgeon can try
to respect mirror areas during surgery by mapping them pre-surgically.
Furthermore, damage to the MNS is associated with some degree of cognitive
impairment, so better functional results can be achieved by respecting these
mirror areas. CONCLUSION: Therefore, the aim of the present work is to describe
how the MNS can contribute to neurosurgery and to put forward the hypothesis that
by considering and using MNS properties better functional outcomes can be
achieved.

Langue : ANGLAIS