Apraxia of single tool Use.
We report a 72-year-old right-handed man who showed an 'apraxia of tool use' after a cerebral infarct in the territory of the left middle cerebral artery. His apraxia of tool use was characterized by a clear dissociation between the inability to use a single tool and the ability to use plural tools. Most of the errors occurred in selecting an appropriate target where a tool is expected to be applied. Detailed examinations confirmed that his conceptual knowledge of tool use was well preserved. Furthermore, when a target of a tool was provided as a cue, he used a single tool correctly. These results suggest that his inability to use a single tool originated from his inability to evoke a target image from an actual tool.
Hayakawa
Y
Y
Section of Neuropsychology, Division of Disability Science, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.
Yamadori
A
A
Fujii
T
T
Suzuki
K
K
Tobita
M
M
D000368:Aged; D001072:Apraxias / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D020768:Middle Cerebral Artery / Q000473:pathology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests