Speed of motor execution and apraxia.

We used a reaction time paradigm to explore the relationship between motor execution and apraxia. The task required reaching for one to three keys. The instruction was varied by introducing a model of a hand indicating which fingers to use. Whereas patients with right-brain damage were slower than controls regardless of condition, the performance of patients with left-brain damage was only impaired when movements had to be carried out according to the model. Although this indicates a deficit in movement planning, there was no correlation between the impairment of patients with left-brain damage and clinical manifestations of apraxia. It thus remains an open question whether the impairment reflects an aspect of motor dominance of the left hemisphere that is too subtle to be detected by clinical apraxia testing, or whether it is related to task demands outside the domain of motor control. In any case, the results of this study demonstrate the need to control cognitive task demands when exploring motor capabilities of patients with left-brain damage.