Transitive gesture production in apraxia: visual and nonvisual sensory contributions

The production of transitive limb gestures is optimized when the appropriate tool can be physically manipulated. Little research has addressed the independent contributions of visual and nonvisual sources of sensory information to this phenomenon. In this study, 12 control, 37 LHD, and 50 RHD stroke patients performed transitive limb gestures to pantomime (to verbal command with the object visible) and object manipulation. Performance was more accurate in the object manipulation condition, suggesting that haptic and kinesthetic cues are important for transitive gesture production. Various patterns of performance were observed in the stroke groups, indicating that selective damage to the haptic/kinesthetic processing system is possible and common following unilateral stroke.