Sensorimotor learning in ideomotor apraxia.

Sensorimotor learning ability in patients with ideomotor apraxia was investigated, using as subjects, eight patients with ideomotor apraxia, 8 with aphasia without ideomotor apraxia, and 8 normal controls. The aphasia, apraxia, and normal control groups were matched for age, sex, and education. The aphasia and apraxia groups were chosen to control for lesion size and scores on Kimura's recurring figure test, the Token test, and intelligence. The mirror-aiming test was performed and the learning effect in terms of decreases in total time, the number of errors, and the times for errors were examined. There was no statistically significant difference between the learning effect of the apraxic group and that of the aphasic group for total time, the number of errors, and the times for errors; however, there were group differences on each trial for number of errors and the times for errors. These results suggest that patients with ideomotor apraxia have some difficulties in motor performance rather than disturbance of learning.