The effect of action observation and motor imagery on mu rhythm suppression in basketball free throw shot

The purpose of present study was to examine the effects of action observation and motor imagery on mu rhythm suppression in basketball free throw shot.
10 novice male students (mean age: 23.2±1.5 years) voluntarily participated in this study. The observation and imagery’ order was counterbalanced. Participants’ Brain Waves were recorded by electroencephalograph in four conditions, open and closed eye resting, observing and imagery of free throw shot in external perspective. Mu rhythm Suppression was calculated as a ratio of the alpha power during observation and imagery relative to the alpha power in the baseline conditions (open and closed eyes rest).
Findings: Results of ANOVA (2×3) with the within-subject factors of condition (Observation, Imagery) and brain area (C3,CZ,C4) relative to the resting period with open and closed eyes showed that only the main effect of the condition were significant (P ≥0.01), so that, there were significant differences between mu rhythm suppression in observation and imagery conditions. In other words, mu rhythm in observation condition was more significantly suppressed compared to the imagery condition (P ≥0.01), but the main effect of brain area and the interaction of both variables were not significant.
Results of present study suggest that more mu rhythm suppression in action observation compared to imagery condition reflects more reactivity of mirror neurons to action observation. It appears that observation is more effective strategy in educational situation.