Mirror therapy protocol
hand movements
A mirror was placed in the participants’ midsagittal plane to create a visual illusion of a paretic limb by using the mirror reflection of the non-paretic arm. The paretic arm was placed behind a mirror without being seen by the participant. During the 20-min mirror therapy, a robotic hand was attached to the paretic hand and provided continuous passive motion including 10-min grasp and release motion and 10-min pinch and release motion. Participant were instructed to look at the reflection of the non-paretic arm in the mirror, imagined it as the paretic arm and perform bilateral hand movements as symmetrically as possible. For the sham mirror priming group, participants underwent the same protocol except the mirror was covered with black fabric.