On crossed apraxia. Description of a right-handed apraxic patient with right supplementary motor area damage

Cortex. 1997 Jun;33(2):341-54. doi: 10.1016/s0010-9452(08)70010-8.

Abstract

GP, a right-handed woman, without evidence of familial left-handedness, showed clearcut bilateral ideo-motor apraxia and oro-facial apraxia after a vascular lesion of the right hemisphere, encroaching upon the fronto-mesial region. She scored normally in most other cognitive tests, including language, but showed signs of callosal disconnection, left anarchic hand and mild unilateral spatial neglect. This cognitive profile points to the possibility of praxis being localized to the right hemisphere in this right-handed patient. We argue in favour of individual variability of praxis dominance, and maintain that this dominance might be completely right-sided in some subjects. Moreover the anatomical locus of GP's lesion points to the possible role that the frontal lobes (and more specifically the Supplementary Motor Area) play in the genesis of apraxia.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Agnosia / diagnosis
  • Agnosia / physiopathology
  • Agnosia / psychology
  • Aneurysm, Ruptured / diagnosis
  • Aneurysm, Ruptured / physiopathology*
  • Aneurysm, Ruptured / psychology
  • Apraxias / diagnosis
  • Apraxias / physiopathology*
  • Awareness / physiology
  • Brain Damage, Chronic / diagnosis
  • Brain Damage, Chronic / physiopathology*
  • Brain Damage, Chronic / psychology
  • Brain Mapping
  • Corpus Callosum / physiopathology
  • Dominance, Cerebral / physiology*
  • Female
  • Frontal Lobe / physiopathology
  • Functional Laterality / physiology
  • Humans
  • Intracranial Aneurysm / diagnosis
  • Intracranial Aneurysm / physiopathology*
  • Intracranial Aneurysm / psychology
  • Middle Aged
  • Motor Cortex / physiopathology*
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Subarachnoid Hemorrhage / diagnosis
  • Subarachnoid Hemorrhage / physiopathology*
  • Subarachnoid Hemorrhage / psychology