Tactile apraxia: unimodal apractic disorder of tactile object exploration associated with parietal lobe lesions.

Tactile apraxia is characterized by an isolated disturbance of hand movements for use of and interaction with an object (transitive movements) in the presence of preserved intransitive movements (movements without use of an object, for example repetitive movements or gestures). It is, however, still unclear whether motor and sensory abnormalities represent causal or associated features of tactile apraxia. To address this question, quantitative kinematic recordings of exploratory finger movements (transitive movements) and rapid alternating finger movements (intransitive movements) were studied in 20 healthy volunteers and 22 patients with focal lesions of the parietal, anterofrontal and motor cortex. The most severe deficits of manual object exploration were found in patients with parietal lesions, using the hand contralateral to the lesion. Patients with lesions of the anterior parietal lobe who exhibited prominent sensory deficits and astereognosia showed a decrease in frequency and regularity of exploratory finger movements and a marked increase in exploration space. Patients with posterior parietal lesions exhibiting severe astereognosia, apraxia and deficits in dexterity had a greater decrease in frequency and regularity of manipulative movements, but a less pronounced increase of exploration space than the patients with anterior parietal lesions. Although the patients with parietal lobe lesions could generate rapid alternating finger movements, the regularity of these movements was also impaired. In comparison, patients with frontal lobe lesions exhibited impaired contralesional manipulatory and rapid alternating finger movements but no sensory abnormalities or astereognosia. We conclude that tactile apraxia represents a deficit in the programming of exploratory finger movements mediated by the parietal lobe. The comparison with lesions of other regions participating in the cortical network for tactile exploration reveals that apraxia of exploratory movements in parietal lobe lesions represents a disturbance distinct from elementary motor or sensory abnormalities, but closely related to stereognostic functioning.

[1]  G. Holmes,et al.  Sensory disturbances from cerebral lesions , 1911 .

[2]  D. Katz.  Der Aufbau der Tastwelt , 1925 .

[3]  G. Smith,et al.  Die Cytoarchitektonik der Hirnrinde des erwachsenen Menschen. , 1927 .

[4]  R. Klein.  Zur Symptomatologie des Parietallappens , 1931 .

[5]  LES ASTEREOGNOSIES. PATHOLOGIE DU TOUCHER. CLINIQUE , 1936 .

[6]  M. Critchleey.  [Parietal lobes]. , 1953, Giornale di psichiatria e di neuropatologia.

[7]  J. Gibson.  Observations on active touch. , 1962, Psychological review.

[8]  R. C. Oldfield.  The assessment and analysis of handedness: the Edinburgh inventory. , 1971, Neuropsychologia.

[9]  H. Sakata,et al.  Somatosensory properties of neurons in the superior parietal cortex (area 5) of the rhesus monkey. , 1973, Brain research.

[10]  V. Mountcastle,et al.  Posterior parietal association cortex of the monkey: command functions for operations within extrapersonal space. , 1975, Journal of neurophysiology.

[11]  A. Hirano,et al.  AN ATLAS OF THE HUMAN BRAIN FOR COMPUTERIZED TOMOGRAPHY. , 1978 .

[12]  Arthur E. Rosenbaum,et al.  An Atlas of the Human Brain for Computerized Tomography , 1979 .

[13]  Palpatory apraxia. , 1982, European neurology.

[14]  Per E. Roland,et al.  Somatosensory detection of microgeometry, macrogeometry and kinesthesia after localized lesions of the cerebral hemispheres in man , 1987, Brain Research Reviews.

[15]  R. Klatzky,et al.  Hand movements: A window into haptic object recognition , 1987, Cognitive Psychology.

[16]  H. Freund,et al.  Sensorimotor disturbances in patients with lesions of the parietal cortex. , 1989, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[17]  R. Caselli,et al.  Rediscovering tactile agnosia. , 1991, Mayo Clinic proceedings.

[18]  Christian Bohm,et al.  Somatosensory Discrimination of Shape: Tactile Exploration and Cerebral Activation , 1991, The European journal of neuroscience.

[19]  Paul B. Johnson,et al.  Control of Arm Movement in Space , 1992 .

[20]  H. Sakata,et al.  Hand-Movement-Related Neurons of the Posterior Parietal Cortex of the Monkey: Their Role in the Visual Guidance of Hand Movements , 1992 .

[21]  Roberto Caminiti,et al.  Control of arm movement in space : neurophysiological and computational approaches , 1992 .

[22]  R. Caselli,et al.  Ventrolateral and dorsomedial somatosensory association cortex damage produces distinct somesthetic syndromes in humans , 1993, Neurology.

[23]  H. Sakata,et al.  Neural mechanisms of visual guidance of hand action in the parietal cortex of the monkey. , 1995, Cerebral cortex.

[24]  M. Arbib,et al.  Grasping objects: the cortical mechanisms of visuomotor transformation , 1995, Trends in Neurosciences.

[25]  F. Lacquaniti,et al.  Representing spatial information for limb movement: role of area 5 in the monkey. , 1995, Cerebral cortex.

[26]  H Steinmetz,et al.  The pattern of motor deficits in relation to the site of stroke lesions. , 1995, European neurology.

[27]  R. J. Seitz,et al.  Thalamic metabolism and corticospinal tract integrity determine motor recovery in stroke , 1996, Annals of neurology.

[28]  M J Farah,et al.  Tactile agnosia. Underlying impairment and implications for normal tactile object recognition. , 1996, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[29]  Morihiro Sugishita,et al.  Modality Specific Naming And Gesture Disturbances: A Case With Optic Aphasia, Bilateral Tactile Aphasia, Optic Apraxia and Tactile Apraxia , 1996, Cortex.

[30]  C Dohle,et al.  Human anterior intraparietal area subserves prehension , 1998, Neurology.

[31]  R. J. Seitz,et al.  A parieto-premotor network for object manipulation: evidence from neuroimaging , 1999, Experimental Brain Research.

[32]  R. J. Seitz,et al.  A fronto‐parietal circuit for object manipulation in man: evidence from an fMRI‐study , 1999, The European journal of neuroscience.

[33]  M. Jeannerod,et al.  Perception of self-generated movement following left parietal lesion. , 1999, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[34]  R. J. Seitz,et al.  Mirror agnosia and mirror ataxia constitute different parietal lobe disorders , 1999, Annals of neurology.