Novel Tool Selection in Left Brain-Damaged Patients With Apraxia of Tool Use: A Study of Three Cases

Abstract

Our findings confirm that tool use disorders result from impaired technical reasoning, leading patients to meet difficulties in selecting tools based on their physical properties. We also go further by showing that these difficulties can decrease as the choice is reduced, at least for some properties, opening new avenues for rehabilitation programs. (JINS, 2018, 24, 524-529).

Development of a control task for clarifying the neural mechanisms underlying tool-use behavior in rats (Rattus norvegicus)

“…Recently, many studies have attempted to reveal the neural mechanisms underlying tool-use behavior in humans by examining patients with brain damage as they undertake tool-use tasks [8]. Studies using rats would be useful to reveal these mechanisms since various experimental manipulations can be applied to rats, including microinjection of drugs and electrocautery lesions to specific areas of the brain [9].…”

Knowing “what for,” but not “where”: Dissociation between functional and contextual tool knowledge in healthy individuals and patients with dementia

“…Apraxia of tool use (hereafter referred to as apraxia) is the inability to use familiar or novel tools properly following brain lesions, in the absence of elementary sensorimotor, coordination, comprehension, or attentional deficits (Geschwind, 1975;Rothi et al, 1991Rothi et al, , 1997. Patients may have difficulties selecting or manipulating familiar tools (Buchmann & Randerath, 2017;Goldenberg & Hagmann, 1998; see also Osiurak et al, 2018). Like naturalistic action impairments, apraxia has been described in patients with Alzheimer's disease or semantic dementia (Baumard et al, 2016;Bier et al, 2013;Bozeat et al, 2000Bozeat et al, , 2002Buchmann et al, 2020;Dumont et al, 2000;Lesourd et al, 2013Lesourd et al, , 2017; R. L. Schwartz et al, 2000).…”