Ideomotor Apraxia: A multi-study lesion mapping perspective

Ideomotor Apraxia is seen as a deficit of skilled movement in the absence of motor impairment. It is commonly associated with left hemisphere damage due to cerebrovascular damage such as stroke, tumors, or neurodegenerative diseases like corticobasal degeneration. The discourse around Apraxia and its subtypes can be traced back around 100 years to Liepmann’s discovery, however, there remains much ambiguity around terminology and assessments that has been traced back to a task-based versus a process-based approach to understanding the praxis network. The present study is an outcome of a systematic analysis of the literature around Ideomotor Apraxia, primarily in patients with left brain damage as a result of stroke or tumors. Only studies specifically providing neuroimaging data have been selected. From these, lesions have been mapped onto MRIcron using recommended guidelines, to extract coordinates from areas of most overlap, or to create overlays where necessary. The data extracted from these studies are analyzed and reviewed to understand the representation of neural correlates associated with Ideomotor Apraxia.