Quantitative assessment of impairment in constructional ability by cube copying in patients with aphasia

Abstract

Constructional apraxia was evaluated in patients with aphasia using a cube-copying task. It was assessed whether quantitative assessment of cube copying could be used to estimate the performance intelligence quotient (IQ) according to neuropsychological tests. Abnormality in the cube-copying test was observed in 42 of 46 patients (91.3%). Performance according to Raven's coloured progressive matrices and the revised Wechshler adult intelligence scale (WAIS-R) in patients with poor cube copying was significantly lower than in the other four patients. Numbers of the connections completed and plane-orientation errors made in the cube-copying test were significantly correlated with performance IQ on the WAIS-R, correlating particularly with block design, digit symbol, and object assembly in performance IQ subtests. The quantitatively scored cube-copying test, then, can roughly predict non-verbal IQ in patients with aphasia.

Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices as a measure of cognitive functioning in Cerebral Palsy

“…2004) and a relationship between RCPM performance and visuospatial impairment has been found in some pathologies (Cronin‐Golomb & Braun 1997; Blake et al . 2002; Maeshima et al . 2002).…”

“…In stroke patients, RCPM scores were related to constructional ability measured by a cube copying task and were found to be a sensitive and specific measure of special perception deficits and also of visual inattention (Blake et al . 2002; Maeshima et al . 2002).…”

“…As the involvement of visuoperceptual functions in RCPM execution is well established, we expected visuospatial performance to contribute to explaining RCPM scores. More than one-third of the RCPM items are predominantly visuospatial (Lezak et al 2004) and a relationship between RCPM performance and visuospatial impairment has been found in some pathologies (Cronin-Golomb & Braun 1997;Blake et al 2002;Maeshima et al 2002). Cronin-Colomb and Braun's study of Parkinson's disease showed that poor RCPM performance was related more to the visuospatial requirements than to the problem-solving component (Cronin-Golomb & Braun 1997).…”

“…Spreen & Strauss (1998) recommended this form for use with persons suffering from physical disabilities, aphasias, CP or deafness, and persons with intellectual disability. RCPM has classically been used to measure global cognitive performance [in terms of intelligence (Nakamura et al 2000), mental age (Barnard et al 1998;Alevriadou et al 2004), intellectual performance (Zaini et al 2005) and non-verbal intelligence (Giovagnoli 2001;Weichbold & Herka 2003;Counter et al 2005)], or to measure visuoperceptual and visuospatial functions (Diesfeldt 1990;Cronin-Golomb & Braun 1997;Gainotti et al 1998;Blake et al 2002;Maeshima et al 2002;Nagano-Saito et al 2005).…”

Lateralization of Cognitive Functions in Aphasia after Right Brain Damage

“…Possible interactions between non-verbal functions and language ability in aphasic patients have attracted the interest of researchers. Some investigators have reported the relationship between non-verbal functions and aphasia severity,32-34 while other investigators described a significant correlation between the AQ and scores on constructional and visuospatial tasks 15,35…”