Praxial disorders in focal lesions of cerebral hemispheres

• Main Author: Jorge Murillo Duran
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: CAEN 2007-11-01
• Series: Cuadernos de Neuropsicologia
• Subjects: Apraxia; Praxia; cerebral tissue lesion; neuropsychological evaluation
• Online Access: http://www.neuropsicologia.cl/foros/index.php/topic,175.0.html

The purpose of this work is to analyze paraxial difficulties i.e, functional disorders in movementresulting from cerebral tissue lesions. In accordance with the literature on the subject, the following definition, the following definition of apraxia has been accepted: “Apraxia is inability in properly executing kinetic tasks without impairment or loss of motor or sensory functions or ataxia with would condition such inability”. “Proper execution” used in this definition concerns not only the effect of the action but also means of its realization. “Kinetic tasks” signify all aspects of motor activity defined by instructions, irrespective of the type of instruction (verbal or gestures), and regardless of whether it required −in the final effect− imitating the movement of the investigator or whether they were performed independently. The methodology has been based in the principle on Luria’s works.Deliberations on praxial disorders were based on investigation results embracing 90 patients with focal cerebral lesions. In fifty cases, changes were localized in the left cerebral hemisphere, in forty cases−in the right hemisphere. The summing up the results concerning a global comparison between cerebral hemispheres, indicate the following regularities: Results achieved made it possible to form the opinion that not all of the generally accepted tests investigating praxia in persons with cerebral lesions are solved faultlessly by healthy individuals; thus, a faulty execution should not always be regarded as a sign of pathological functioning of the cerebral tissue as a result of lesion.