Action Observation Theraphy in Severe Acquired Brain Injury.

MI-UL can be used to assess the motor impairment in a patient who has had a stroke.

Test for each upper limb:

• pincer grip
• elbow flexion
• shoulder abduction

For the pincer grip:

0 points, no movement 19 points, grip possible but not against gravity 33 points, normal grip

For all other items:

0 points, no movement 14 points, Visible movement but not for the entire joint range or against gravity 19 points, movement possible for the entire joint range against gravity but not against resistance 33 points movement performed with normal force Each segment has a total score obtained by adding the value "1" to the score of each individual item. The total score then ranges from 1 (no movement) to 100 (normal movement).

MAS is a performance-based scale used to assess the level of impairment and daily motor function in stroke patients. It consists of 9 items to assess areas of motor function. Each item, with the exception of the item on "general tone," is assessed with a 7-point scale (0 to 6, where 6 indicates optimal motor behavior).

For the general tone item, scoring is based on continuous observations during the assessment. A score of 4 on this item indicates a consistently normal response, a score > 4 indicates persistent hypertone, and a score < 4 indicates varying degrees of hypotone.

Item scores (except for general tone) are summed to obtain an overall score (out of 48 points).

For MAS 1 to 5, completion of a higher-level item suggests success in the lower-level items, and thus the lower items can be skipped.

The upper limb section (MAS 6-8) should be scored non-hierarchically, i.e., each item within the subsets should be scored regardless of its position in the hierarchy.

9HPT is used to measure finger dexterity in patients with different neurological diagnoses. The patient should take the 9 pegs from a container, one by one, and to insert them into the holes in the board, as quickly as possible, using only the hand to be evaluated. After that, the patient should remove the pegs from the holes, one at a time, and reinsert them into the container.

The evaluator should start the stopwatch as soon as the patient touches the first peg. The evaluator should stop the stopwatch when the last peg is in the container.

CRS-r is an assessment tool that examines 6 functions: auditory, visual, oral-verbal motor, communicative, and vigilance.

Its different items are organized hierarchically (low scores represent reflex activities, high scores describe cognitively mediated behaviors).

For each function examined, the diagnosis of Vegetative State, Minimal Consciousness State, Emergence from Minimal Consciousness State can be made.

LCF is a tool that assesses the level of cognitive and behavioural recovery. It consists of 7 items ranging from 1=no response to 8=final-appropriate.

The Glasgow Outcome Scale- Extended (GOS-E) ranks global outcomes in TBI survivors.

The GOS-E consists of a series of discrete categories arranged in a hierarchy and does not involve the summation of individual item scores. Choice items in the hierarchy are used to decide an outcome.

The 8 categories are: Dead, Vegetative State, Lower Severe Disability, Upper Severe Disability, Lower Moderate Disability, Upper Moderate Disability, Lower Good Recovery, and Upper Good Recovery.

DRS is an assessment tool for level of consciousness and functional recovery. It consists of four domains:

(i) Vigilance, awareness and responsiveness (0 to 12 points) (ii) Cognitive ability for self-care activities (0 to 9 points) (iii) Functional level (0 to 5 points) (iv) employability (0 to 3 points). A higher score corresponds to greater disability. The overall score ranges from 0 to 30 and allows the identification of 10 categories ranging from category 1 (no disability) to category 10 (death).

The PRPS is a 6-point Likert-type measure of observed patient participation in a therapy session. The PRPS, with a full description of each anchor point, is as follows:

Poor: The patient refused or did not participate in at least half of the session.

Fair: The patient did not complete most of the exercises. Good: The patient participated in all exercises with good effort and completed most but not all of the exercises, and passively followed directions.

Very good: the patient participated in all exercises with maximum effort and finished all exercises.

Excellent: the patient participated in all exercises with maximum effort, completed all exercises and took an active interest in the exercises and/or future therapy sessions.

The information inherent in the assessment of electrocortical activity, using the electroencephalogram (EEG), asking the patient to move the treated limb (or, if not possible, to imagine the movement). The presence of a cortical potential in motor area will be assessed by following the somatotopic organization, by reconstructing a brain map in amplitude