BCIwiki (bciwiki.com) — Immersive virtual reality engaged the sensorimotor cortex more strongly than 2D video or real-world viewing when people combined action observation with motor imagery, researchers at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) reported in Journal of Neural Engineering on September 23, 2026.
Pairing action observation with motor imagery (AO+MI) is a neurorehabilitation strategy meant to promote sensorimotor plasticity without actual movement, making it relevant for people whose motor capacity is limited or absent. The team argued that the quality of cortical activation in each training trial may shape cumulative neuroplastic outcomes, so it matters whether different observation stimuli engage the sensorimotor system differently.
Fifteen healthy participants each completed 3 sessions, one per modality: immersive VR, 2D video, and live observation of a robot. In every session they watched a humanoid robot raise its arm while imagining the same movement. The researchers recorded electroencephalography (EEG) and computed event-related desynchronization (ERD) in the alpha and beta bands over 8 electrodes spanning frontocentral, central, and centroparietal regions, using ERD as a marker of cortical engagement.
Statistical analyses found significant modality-dependent differences across frequency bands, electrode locations, and movement types. Immersive VR consistently produced the strongest desynchronization, with robust beta-band effects over frontocentral and right centroparietal regions and alpha-band effects over the right central motor cortex.
The authors said the findings support immersive VR as a neurophysiologically grounded tool for optimizing AO+MI-based rehabilitation protocols and brain-computer interface (BCI) applications. The study involved healthy volunteers only, and whether the effect holds in patients has not been tested.