Effect of meaning on apraxic finger imitation deficits

Achilles, Elisabeth I.S.; Fink, Gereon R.; Fischer, Martin H.; Dovern, Anna; Held, A.; Timpert, David C.; Schroeter, Christiane; Schuetz, K.; Kloetzsch, Christof; Weiss, Peter H.

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.12.022

Cited by 30 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Finally, as mentioned previously, the finger imitation task likely engages a more complex network of (semantic and non-semantic) processes ( Achilles et al., 2016 ) than the hand imitation task. This might explain some of the wider variability between the hand and finger imitation scores.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…The gestures employed in Goldenberg's test were originally meant to be ‘meaningless’, in the sense that they conveyed no direct semantic content. However, this characterization has been challenged with a recent analysis suggesting that most of the finger gestures can be interpreted as meaningful ( Achilles et al., 2016 ). The difference is important because meaningful and meaningless gestures might be processed differently in the brain ( Rumiati et al., 2009 ), which raises the possibility that any apparently body-part-specific differences that we find might in fact be driven by semantics.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using multi-level Bayesian lesion-symptom mapping to probe the body-part-specificity of gesture imitation skills

et al. 2017

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Past attempts to identify the neural substrates of hand and finger imitation skills in the left hemisphere of the brain have yielded inconsistent results. Here, we analyse those associations in a large sample of 257 left hemisphere stroke patients. By introducing novel Bayesian methods, we characterise lesion symptom associations at three levels: the voxel-level, the single-region level (using anatomically defined regions), and the region-pair level. The results are inconsistent across those three levels and we argue that each level of analysis makes assumptions which constrain the results it can produce. Regardless of the inconsistencies across levels, and contrary to past studies which implicated differential neural substrates for hand and finger imitation, we find no consistent voxels or regions, where damage affects one imitation skill and not the other, at any of the three analysis levels. Our novel Bayesian approach indicates that any apparent differences appear to be driven by an increased sensitivity of hand imitation skills to lesions that also impair finger imitation. In our analyses, the results of the highest level of analysis (region-pairs) emphasise a role of the primary somatosensory and motor cortices, and the occipital lobe in imitation. We argue that this emphasis supports an account of both imitation tasks based on direct sensor-motor connections, which throws doubt on past accounts which imply the need for an intermediate (e.g. body-part-coding) system of representation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using multi-level Bayesian lesion-symptom mapping to probe the body-part-specificity of gesture imitation skills

et al. 2017

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“…Some have suggested that these tasks are strongly reliant on different areas of the brain (Goldenberg and Karnath 2006 ; Goldenberg and Randerath 2015 ; Goldenberg 2001 , 2009 ), whilst others propose a shared network (Achilles et al 2017 ). Our hand and finger gestures were not designed in keeping with these classical distinctions, and the focus on meaningless action in previous reports makes it hard for us to draw parallels with existing neuropsychological work (but see Achilles et al 2016 ). However, given that our hand gesture stimuli clearly show greater wrist position variability compared to the finger gesture stimuli, it is feasible the effect of rTMS over the left pMTG on wrist velocity has something to do with the postural aspects of the imitation task (i.e., the hand position relative to other parts of the body).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Over the Left Posterior Middle Temporal Gyrus Reduces Wrist Velocity During Emblematic Hand Gesture Imitation

Reader

Holmes

2018

Brain Topogr

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Results from neuropsychological studies, and neuroimaging and behavioural experiments with healthy individuals, suggest that the imitation of meaningful and meaningless actions may be reliant on different processing routes. The left posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG) is one area that might be important for the recognition and imitation of meaningful actions. We studied the role of the left pMTG in imitation using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and two-person motion-tracking. Participants imitated meaningless and emblematic meaningful hand and finger gestures performed by a confederate actor whilst both individuals were motion-tracked. rTMS was applied during action observation (before imitation) over the left pMTG or a vertex control site. Since meaningless action imitation has been previously associated with a greater wrist velocity and longer correction period at the end of the movement, we hypothesised that stimulation over the left pMTG would increase wrist velocity and extend the correction period of meaningful actions (i.e., due to interference with action recognition). We also hypothesised that imitator accuracy (actor-imitator correspondence) would be reduced following stimulation over the left pMTG. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that stimulation over the pMTG, but not the vertex, during action observation reduced wrist velocity when participants later imitated meaningful, but not meaningless, hand gestures. These results provide causal evidence for a role of the left pMTG in the imitation of meaningful gestures, and may also be in keeping with proposals that left posterior temporal regions play a role in the production of postural components of gesture. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s10548-018-0684-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…A patient study by Achilles et al (2016) provides some support for the above. Left-hemisphere stroke patients with and without apraxia were asked to rate the familiarity of meaningless gestures, which they imitated.…”

Section: Regions Identified In Our Task That Form Part Of the Action mentioning

confidence: 75%

A Role for the Action Observation Network in Apraxia After Stroke

Pizzamiglio

Zhang

Kolasinski

et al. 2019

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Limb apraxia is a syndrome often observed after stroke that affects the ability to perform skilled actions despite intact elementary motor and sensory systems. In a large cohort of unselected stroke patients with lesions to the left, right, and bilateral hemispheres, we used voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) on clinical CT head images to identify the neuroanatomical correlates of the impairment of performance in three tasks investigating praxis skills in patient populations. These included a meaningless gesture imitation task, a gesture production task involving pantomiming transitive and intransitive gestures, and a gesture recognition task involving recognition of these same categories of gestures. Neocortical lesions associated with poor performance in these tasks were all in the left hemisphere. They involved the pre-striate and medial temporal cortices, the superior temporal sulcus, inferior parietal area PGi, the superior longitudinal fasciculus underlying the primary motor cortex, and the uncinate fasciculus, subserving connections between temporal and frontal regions. No significant lesions were identified when language deficits, as indicated via a picture naming task, were controlled for. The implication of the superior temporal sulcus and the anatomically connected prestriate and inferior parietal regions challenges traditional models of the disorder. The network identified has been implicated in studies of action observation, which might share cognitive functions sub-serving praxis and language skills.

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Effect of meaning on apraxic finger imitation deficits

Cited by 30 publications

References 25 publications

Using multi-level Bayesian lesion-symptom mapping to probe the body-part-specificity of gesture imitation skills

Using multi-level Bayesian lesion-symptom mapping to probe the body-part-specificity of gesture imitation skills

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Over the Left Posterior Middle Temporal Gyrus Reduces Wrist Velocity During Emblematic Hand Gesture Imitation

A Role for the Action Observation Network in Apraxia After Stroke

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