Action observation as a useful approach for enhancing recovery of verb production: new evidence from aphasia

BACKGROUNDS: Evidence exists that the observation of actions performed by others enhance word retrieval and can be used in aphasia rehabilitation to treat naming impairments. AIM: The aim of the present study was to assess to what extent action observation treatment may improve verb retrieval in chronic aphasics. DESIGN: This was an observational study. SETTING: Patients were recruited from the Neurorehabilitation Centre of Ancona Hospital. POPULATION: Six aphasic patients underwent an intensive language training to improve verb naming. METHODS: Language evaluation was carried out before and after the treatment. A rehabilitation therapy based on observation of actions was administered daily to each patient for two consecutive weeks. Four different rehabilitation procedures were adopted: 1) "observation of action performed by the examiner"; 2) "observation and then execution of action"; 3) "observation of videoclips of actions"; and, as a control condition; 4) "observation of action and execution of meaningless movement". RESULTS: In four participants, a significant improvement in verb retrieval was found for the three experimental procedures (χ² (3)=75.212, P<0.0001), with respect to the control condition. No significant improvement was observed in the two patients with severe deficits in verb semantics (χ² (3)=0.592, P=0.892). CONCLUSIONS: Action observation therapy may become a useful intervention strategy to promote verb retrieval in aphasic patients. CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT: The observation of videoclips of actions may be an efficacious alternative approach to traditional rehabilitation programs for lexical deficits. This finding endorses the planning of innovative low-cost interventions in language rehabilitation