Patients suffering from apraxia, a neurological syndrome caused by lesions in the left hemisphere of the brain, have difficulties executing complex movements, including tool use gestures. In this study, the authors compared the performance of apraxics to that of other patients suffering from left cerebral lesion but showing no sign of apraxia, on a task requiring them to point at targets with a stick. Apraxics performed significantly worse than control patients, committing larger errors and sometimes failing to anticipate the changes in movement coordination imposed by the use of a long object to point at a target within hand reach.

Apraxia is often thought to be due to a loss in the ability to translate memories of well-learned gestures into a specific sequence of movements. With these new findings, the authors suggest that some of those patients are also impaired in more elementary processes that allow the incorporation of an object as a functional extension of their limb into their body coordination.

Story Source:

Materials provided by Elsevier. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

1. Jacobs et al. The use of a tool requires its incorporation into the movement: Evidence from stick-pointing in apraxia. Cortex, 2009; 45 (4): 444 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2007.12.009