Apraxia: a gestural or a cognitive disorder?

François Osiurak1,2 and Didier Le Gall31 Laboratoire d’Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs (EA 3082), Université de Lyon, France2 Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France3 Laboratoire de Psychologie des Pays de la Loire (EA 4638), Université d’Angers, FranceCorrespondence to: François Osiurak, Laboratoire d’Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs (EA 3082), Institut de Psychologie, 5, avenue Pierre Mendès-France, 69676 Bron Cedex, France E-mail: Francois.Osiurak{at}univ-lyon2.frSir,We read with great interest the article by Buxbaum et al. (2014) about the critical brain regions for tool-related and imitative actions. The authors performed voxel-based lesion–symptom mapping with data from 71 left brain-damaged patients. Three types of actions were examined: (i) pantomime to sight of tools (GestTool); (ii) pantomime on imitation (ImTool); and (iii) imitation of meaningless gestures (ImNov). Impairments in all three of the gesture tasks were associated with lesions in left middle and inferior temporal and inferior parietal regions. Moreover, tool-related actions (both GestTool and ImTool) were dependent on left middle and inferior temporal lobe, whereas imitation of meaningless gestures (ImNov) was dependent on left inferior parietal regions. From these findings, the authors drew two conclusions. First, the left inferior parietal lobe might be the basis for the kinematic component of the praxis system, useful for planning movement trajectories in terms of extent, direction and timing. Second, middle and inferior temporal regions might support representational components of the praxis system (e.g. the arm and hand posture associated with the use of a hammer). Note that these conclusions lead to a profound revision of Buxbaum’s initial (2001) model. In this model, the left inferior parietal lobe was viewed

Muzyczne reinterpretacje Jarmarku rymów Juliana Tuwima

Kabaretowa i satyryczna twórczość Tuwima od początku związana była z muzyką. Doskonałym tego dowodem są utwory zgromadzone w Jarmarku rymów, tomie różnorodnym zarówno pod względem gatunkowym, jak i tematycznym. Różne są także sposoby funkcjonowania muzyki w wierszach z tego zbioru. Od momentu jego powstania podejmowano wiele prób muzycznych interpretacji utworów z Jarmarku rymów. Kompozytorzy i piosenkarze byli zafascynowani dźwiękowymi walorami zgromadzonych tam utworów.Od piosenki poetyckiej, przez muzykę rockową (grupa Akurat czy Buldog), po utwory hip-hopowe. Satyry Tuwima są nadal aktualne i niezapomniane dzięki ich muzycznym reinterpretacjom

Muzyczność poezji Władysława Sebyły

The article concentrates upon both theoretical and practical research on the mutual influence between literature and music in Władysław Sebyła’s poetry. The way in which the musicality of the pieces influences and co-creates the catastrophic vision of the world constitutes one of the marks of originality in Sebyła’s poetry. Sebyła, who was not only a poet, but also a musician – he played the piano and the violin – was an incredibly gifted artist whose unique sensibility allowed him to create works which seemed to oscillate between literature and music. This phenomenon could be called, according to Andrzej Hejmej, the musicality of poetry. It manifests in three basic spheres, identified by The Musicality of a Literary Work. Musicality of Sebyła’s poetry should be understood, then, as a transference between the arts, manifesting in the thematizing of music, the use of music terminology and forms, the shaping of language in the poems to underline the similarities between a lyrical and a musical piece (orchestration, particular phonaesthetics, the choice of meter and rhythm)

The cognitive and neural bases of human tool use

It is a euphemism to say that humans use tools. Humans possess a vast repertoire of tools they use every day. In fact, as language or bipedal locomotion, tool use is a hallmark of humans. Tool use has also been often viewed as an important step during evolution (van Schaik et al., 1999) or even as a marker of the evolution of human intelligence (Wynn, 1985). So a fundamental issue is, what are the cognitive and neural bases of human tool use? The present series of papers in this special topic represents the newest additions to that research topic

Dynamic scan paths investigations under manual and highly automated driving

Active visual scanning of the scene is a key task-element in all forms of human locomotion. In the field of driving, steering (lateral control) and speed adjustments (longitudinal control) models are largely based on drivers’ visual inputs. Despite knowledge gained on gaze behaviour behind the wheel, our understanding of the sequential aspects of the gaze strategies that actively sample that input remains restricted. Here, we apply scan path analysis to investigate sequences of visual scanning in manual and highly automated simulated driving. Five stereotypical visual sequences were identified under manual driving: forward polling (i.e. far road explorations), guidance, backwards polling (i.e. near road explorations), scenery and speed monitoring scan paths. Previously undocumented backwards polling scan paths were the most frequent. Under highly automated driving backwards polling scan paths relative frequency decreased, guidance scan paths relative frequency increased, and automation supervision specific scan paths appeared. The results shed new light on the gaze patterns engaged while driving. Methodological and empirical questions for future studies are discussed.Active visual scanning of the scene is a key task-element in all forms of human locomotion. In the field of driving, steering (lateral control) and speed adjustments (longitudinal control) models are largely based on drivers’ visual inputs. Despite knowledge gained on gaze behaviour behind the wheel, our understanding of the sequential aspects of the gaze strategies that actively sample that input remains restricted. Here, we apply scan path analysis to investigate sequences of visual scanning in manual and highly automated simulated driving. Five stereotypical visual sequences were identified under manual driving: forward polling (i.e. far road explorations), guidance, backwards polling (i.e. near road explorations), scenery and speed monitoring scan paths. Previously undocumented backwards polling scan paths were the most frequent. Under highly automated driving backwards polling scan paths relative frequency decreased, guidance scan paths relative frequency increased, and automation supervision specific scan paths appeared. The results shed new light on the gaze patterns engaged while driving. Methodological and empirical questions for future studies are discussed.Peer reviewe

Apraxia of tool use: more evidence for the technical reasoning hypothesis

Various distinct cognitive processes such as semantic memory, executive planning or technical reasoning have been shown to support tool use. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between these processes. To do so, a large apraxia battery was submitted to 16 patients with left brain-damage (LBD) and aphasia and 19 healthy controls. The battery included: classical apraxia tests (Pantomime of Tool Use and Single Tool Use), familiar and novel tool use tests (Tool-Object Pairs and Sequential Mechanical Problem-Solving), semantic memory tests (Recognition of tool utilization gestures and Functional and Categorical Associations) as well as the Tower Of London. The Sequential Mechanical Problem-Solving task is a new task which permits the evaluation of pre-planning in unusual tool use situations. In this task as well as in the Tool-Object Pairs task, participants solved a tool use problem in a Choice and a No-Choice condition to examine the effect of tool selection. Globally, left brain damaged patients were impaired as compared to controls. We found high correlations in left brain damaged patients between performances on classical apraxia tests, familiar and novel tool use tests and Functional and Categorical Associations but no significant association between these performances and Tower Of London or Recognition of tool utilization gestures. Furthermore, the two conditions (Choice and No-Choice) of Tool-Object Pairs and Sequential Mechanical Problem-Solving were associated. In sum, all tasks involving tool use are strongly associated in LBD patients. Moreover, the ability to solve sequential mechanical problems does not depend on executive planning. Also, tool use appears to be associated with knowledge about object function but not with knowledge about tool manipulation. Taken together, these findings indicate that technical reasoning and, to a lesser extent, semantic memory may both play an important role in tool use

Apraxia and Alzheimer’s Disease: Review and Perspectives

Apraxia is one of the cognitive deficits that characterizes Alzheimer\u27s disease. Despite its prevalence and relevance to diagnosing Alzheimer\u27s disease, this topic has received little attention and is without comprehensive review. The review herein is aimed to fill this gap by first presenting an overview of the impairment caused in different clinical situations: pantomime of tool use, single tool use, real tool use, mechanical problem solving, function and manipulation knowledge tasks, and symbolic/meaningless gestures. On the basis of these results, we then propose alternative interpretations regarding the nature of the underlying mechanisms impaired by the disease. Also presented are principal methodological issues precluding firm conclusions from being drawn