title: [A case with apraxia of tool use: selective inability to form a hand posture for a tool].
abstract: Impaired tool use is recognized as a symptom of ideational apraxia. While many studies have focused on difficulties in producing gestures as a whole, using tools involves several steps; these include forming hand postures appropriate for the use of certain tool, selecting objects or body parts to act on, and producing gestures. In previously reported cases, both producing and recognizing hand postures were impaired. Here we report the first case showing a selective impairment of forming hand postures appropriate for tools with preserved recognition of the required hand postures. A 24-year-old, right-handed man was admitted to hospital because of sensory impairment of the right side of the body, mild aphasia, and impaired tool use due to left parietal subcortical hemorrhage. His ability to make symbolic gestures, copy finger postures, and orient his hand to pass a slit was well preserved. Semantic knowledge for tools and hand postures was also intact. He could flawlessly select the correct hand postures in recognition tasks. He only demonstrated difficulties in forming a hand posture appropriate for a tool. Once he properly grasped a tool by trial and error, he could use it without hesitation. These observations suggest that each step of tool use should be thoroughly examined in patients with ideational apraxia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation, Yokohama Brain and Spine Center.
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hayakawa
authors.forename: Toshikatsu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fujii
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yamadori
authors.forename: Kenichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Meguro
authors.forename: Kyoko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Suzuki
mesh_terms: D001072:Apraxias / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006225:Hand / Q000503:physiopathology*; D018737:Hand Strength; D006801:Humans; D020300:Intracranial Hemorrhages / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D011187:Posture; D055815:Young Adult