Observation and imitation of nursing actions: A NIRS study with experts and novices.

We used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to study the difference in brain activity among three types of observers (novices, junior-experts (JE), and an expert in the field of nursing) who observed and imitated nursing actions, to assess whether the cerebral processes of action observation and imitation are modulated by the existing expertise and motor-skills repertoire of the observer. Our results suggest that in nursing, expertise in JE and motor-skills repertoire in high-scoring novices enhance their sensibilities in the integration and recognition of somatosensory input in the imitation of nursing actions.