Ideomotor Apraxia
Return to Library
New life sciences data have been reported by researchers at National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
2009 MAY 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- A new study, 'Gesture subtype-dependent left lateralization of praxis planning: an event-related fMRI study,' is now available. According to recent research from the United States, "Ideomotor apraxia is a disorder mainly of praxis planning, and the deficit is typically more evident in pantomiming transitive (tool related) than intransitive (communicative) gestures. The goal of the present study was to assess differential hemispheric lateralization of praxis production using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging." "Voxel-based analysis demonstrated significant activations in posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and premotor cortex (PMC) association areas, which were predominantly left hemispheric, regardless of whether planning occurred for right or left hand transitive or intransitive pantomimes. Furthermore, region of interest-based calculation of mean laterality index (LI) revealed a significantly stronger left lateralization in PPC/PMC clusters for planning intransitive (LI=-0.49 + 0.10, mean + standard deviation [SD]) than transitive gestures (-0.37 + 0.08, p=0.02, paired t-tests) irrespective of the hand involved. This differential left lateralization for planning remained significant in PMC (LI=-0.47 + 0.14 and -0.36 + 0.13, mean + SD, p=0.04), but not in PPC (-0.56 + 0.11 and -0.45 + 0.12, p=0.11), when both regions were analyzed separately," wrote S. Bohlhalter and colleagues, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. The researchers concluded: "The findings point to a left-hemispheric specialization for praxis planning, being more pronounced for intransitive gestures in PMC, possibly due to their communicative nature." Bohlhalter and colleagues published their study in Cerebral Cortex (Gesture subtype-dependent left lateralization of praxis planning: an event-related fMRI study. Cerebral Cortex, 2009;19(6):1256-62). For additional information, contact S. Bohlhalter, National Institutes of Health, Human Motor Control Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, MD 20892-1428 USA.. Publisher contact information for the journal Cerebral Cortex is: Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon St., Oxford OX2 6DP, England. Keywords: United States, Bethesda, Life Sciences, Speech Pathology, Apraxia, Magnetic Resonance. This article was prepared by Life Science Weekly editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2009, Life Science Weekly via NewsRx.com.
|
