Lecture 11

Question 1

Practice is associated with which hemisphere of the brain?

Answer 1

Left hemisphere

Question 2

What will lesions to the left hemisphere of the brain cause?

Answer 2

Apraxia

Question 3

Define:

Apraxia

Answer 3

• A high-level impairment of learned, skilled purposeful movement that cannot be explained by a language, comprehension, motor or sensory deficits

Question 4

True or False:

Apraxia is easy to diagnose

Answer 4

False, apraxia is difficult to diagnose as one has to consider the many possibilities

Question 5

How is apraxia diagnosed?

Answer 5

Getting patient to do various complex actions (combing hair, hammering nail etc.)

Question 6

What are the 2 types of apraxia? Explain

Answer 6

1. Ideomotor apraxia: Understands the action but cannot transform into movements; inability to translate knowledge of a movement into an appropriate innovatory pattern
2. Ideational apraxia: Lost knowledge about how to perform an action; inability to evoke the representation of an action from memory

Question 7

True or False:

When evaluating for apraxia, it is important to use the limb on the same side as the lesion

Answer 7

True

Question 8

Define:

Dyspraxia

Answer 8

An inability to plan and process motor tasks and is typically observed in developmental settings

Question 9

In what group does dyspraxia often appear in?

Answer 9

Young and older children

Question 10

True or False:

Dyspraxia is not attributed to any brain injury

Answer 10

True

Question 11

What may be the cause of dyspraxia? Why is this the theory?

Answer 11

A left cerebral hemisphere parietal lobe deficit (not necessarily an injury)
Decreased activation of parietal networks during a visuomotor tracking task is the evidence behind this hypothesis

Question 12

Define and describe:

Down syndrome

Answer 12

• Genetic disorder involving a triplication of the 21st chromosomal pair
• Characteristics include: facial features, shorter in stature, differences in cardiac and digestive issues, smaller/thinner and “rounder” corpus callosum

Question 13

What is different about the corpus callosum in people with Down Syndrome?

Answer 13

• Smaller/thinner and “rounder”
• Not optimized to share information between the left and right hemispheres of the brain

Question 14

How is speech perception and production different for people with Down Syndrome?

Answer 14

1. Increased right hemisphere activation for speech perception
2. Left hemisphere dominant for speech production

Question 15

Why do people with Down Syndrome have verbal-motor dissociation?

Answer 15

Speech is perceived in right hemisphere, then produced using left hemisphere
Couple with small corpus callosum makes the system very inefficient

Question 16

True or False:

People with Down Syndrome respond to visual information poorly

Answer 16

False, they respond to visual information better than verbal information