Ideomotor apraxia and aphasia: an examination of types and manifestations of apraxic symptoms.

Eighty-eight aphasic patients with the four standard syndromes as well as two control groups, 10 right-sided brain damaged patients and 10 patients without brain damage were examined for ideomotor apraxia by means of 200 tasks. The tasks required oral, arm, leg and bimanual movements, both on verbal command and on imitation. The limb movements were half meaningful, half meaningless. Performances were evaluated according to five response categories: correct, fragmentary, augmentative, perseveratory, other errors. The aim of the investigation was to ascertain whether there are apractic syndromes which are either related to the aphasic syndromes or are characterized by certain types of errors or by manifestation on certain parts of the body. The findings were negative in all three respects. The meaning of these findings for the organization of praxis and language is discussed. The performances of the control groups were consistently higher than those of the aphasic patients.