ArticleFrontiers in human neuroscience2022
The Proactive Synergy Between Action Observation and Execution in the Acquisition of New Motor Skills.
Article in Frontiers in human neuroscience, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Action observation for upper limb rehabilitation after stroke.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Glutamatergic modulation of transcranial direct current stimulation over the premotor cortex combined with peripheral nerve stimulation promotes observation-execution-related cortical excitability and motor performance.The Journal of physiology · 2026Trial
- The capacity of action observation to drag the trainees' motor pattern toward the observed model.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- A Virtual Reality Dataset to Support Hand Action Observation in Rehabilitation and Motor Learning Studies.Scientific data · 2026Article
- Brain responses to different action observation paradigms and assessing transferable cross-paradigm decoding.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Concurrent observation and physical practice facilitates early closed motor skill learning: evidence from EEG source functional connectivity and behavioral performance.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Action Observation for Children and Adolescents with Cerebral Palsy: Hope or Hype? A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Efficacy of a Rehabilitation Treatment Using Action Observation Therapy Enhanced by Muscle Synergy-Derived Electrical Stimulation (OTHELLO) in Post-Stroke Patients: A RCT Study Protocol.Journal of central nervous system disease · 2025Article
- Identification of a Hippocampus-to-Zona Incerta Projection involved in Motor Learning.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2024Article
- The importance of observing the master's hand: Action Observation Training promotes the acquisition of new musical skills.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Article
- Kicking in or kicking out? The role of the individual motor expertise in predicting the outcome of rugby actions.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Top-down and bottom-up stimulation techniques combined with action observation treatment in stroke rehabilitation: a perspective.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Review
- Motor imagery training to improve language processing: What are the arguments?Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2023Review
- Mapping relational links between motor imagery, action observation, action-related language, and action execution.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Motor learning can be defined as a process that leads to relatively permanent changes in motor behavior through repeated interactions with the environment. Different strategies can be adopted to achieve motor learning: movements can be overtly practiced leading to an amelioration of motor performance; alternatively, covert strategies (e.g., action observation) can promote neuroplastic changes in the motor system even in the absence of real movement execution. However, whether a training regularly alternating action observation and execution (i.e., Action Observation Training, AOT) may surpass the pure motor practice (MP) and observational learning (OL) remains to be established. To address this issue, we enrolled 54 subjects requiring them to learn tying nautical knots via one out of three types of training (AOT, MP, OL) with the scope to investigate which element mostly contributes to motor learning. We evaluated the overall improvement of each group, along with the predictive role that neuropsychological indexes exert on each treatment outcome. The AOT group exhibited the highest performance improvement (42%), indicating that the regular alternation between observation and execution biases participants toward a better performance. The reiteration of this sequence provides an incremental, adjunct value that super-adds onto the efficacy of motor practice or observational learning in isolation (42% > 25% + 10%, i.e., OL + MP). These findings extend the use of the AOT from clinical and rehabilitative contexts to daily routines requiring the learning and perfectioning of new motor skills such as sports training, music, and occupational activities requiring fine motor control.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.