Actions anchored by concepts: defective action comprehension in semantic dementia.
OBJECTIVE
To study the ability of patients with semantic dementia to understand actions, in order to examine the contribution of semantic memory to action comprehension.


METHODS
The ability to comprehend symbolic and instrumental actions was assessed in 6 patients with semantic dementia and 10 healthy controls. The patients were also given the imitation test of meaningful and meaningless actions.


RESULTS
In all patients with semantic dementia, comprehension of both symbolic and instrumental actions was defective. The comprehension of symbolic actions was more impaired than that of instrumental actions. Their ability to imitate other's actions was well preserved.


CONCLUSIONS
This study showed that comprehension of action was impaired in semantic dementia, suggesting that semantic memory has an important role in comprehension of human action.
Nishio
Y
Y
Department of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1, Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8575, Japan. nishiou@mail.tains.tohoku.ac.jp
Kazui
H
H
Hashimoto
M
M
Shimizu
K
K
Onouchi
K
K
Mochio
S
S
Suzuki
K
K
Mori
E
E
D000368:Aged; D003071:Cognition; D003704:Dementia / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D013561:Symbolism