Constructional apraxia in left brain damaged patients: A planning disorder?

G. Gainotti, G. Miceli, C. Caltagirone

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

82 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to verify the hypothesis advanced by Hecaen and Assal (1970), that the presence of landmarks can improve the copying performance of left brain-damaged patients, while leaving unchanged that of right brain-damaged patients. Sixty-two control subjects and 196 brain-damaged patients with lesions restricted to the right (N = 84) or to the left (N = 112) cerebral hemisphere were given two tests of copying drawings. In the first task the patients were asked to directly copy a drawing; to perform the second test they were given guiding landmarks. On both tests no difference was found between the performance of the two hemispheric groups. Right-sided patients used a lower number of guiding landmarks, but this occurred only on the half of the drawings contralateral to the side of the lesion and was apparently due to unilateral spatial neglect.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)109-118
Number of pages10
JournalCortex
Volume13
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - 1977
Externally publishedYes

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