Cognitive deficits after stroke

Despite considerable research efforts, several clinical and theoretical issues in the understanding of apraxia and related cognitive deficits after stroke remain disputed (Martin et al., 2017). For example, the common or differential neural correlates of apraxic and other neuropsychological deficits, such as aphasia and neglect, are unclear.
Clinically, both the co-occurrence and the dissociation of apraxia and aphasia (Weiss, Ubben et al., 2016) as well as of apraxia and inattention (Timpert et al., 2015; Ubben et al., 2019) have been reported. Using voxel-based lesion symptom mapping (VLSM) and comprehensive neuropsychological testing in patients with left hemisphere (LH) stroke, we revealed the neural underpinnings of these clinical findings.

The clinical importance of such co-occurrences was underlined by our recent findings that in LH stroke patients with apraxic imitation deficits, the severity of aphasia significantly influenced the imitation of meaningful, but not meaningless gestures in the neuropsychological testing (Achilles et al., 2016; 2019).

Cognitive deficits after stroke
Relationship of the specific lesion correlate of combined aphasic and apraxic deficits with the cytoarchitectonically defined Brodmann areas 44 and 45.

Selected publications

  • Achilles EIS, Ballweg CS, Niessen E, Kusch M, Ant JM, Fink GR, Weiss PH (2019). Neural correlates of differential finger gesture imitation deficits in left hemisphere stroke. Neuroimage: Clinical, 23, 101915. DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2019.101915
  • Achilles EIS, Fink GR, Fischer MH, Dovern A, Held A, Timpert DC, Schroeter C, Schuetz K, Kloetzsch C, Weiss PH (2016). Effect of meaning on apraxic finger imitation deficits. Neuropsychologia, 82, 74-83. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.12.022
  • Martin M, Hermsdörfer J, Bohlhalter S, Weiss PH (2017). Networks involved in motor cognition: physiology and pathophysiology of apraxia. Nervenarzt, 88(8), 858-865. DOI: 10.1007/s00115-017-0370-7
  • Timpert DC, Weiss PH, Vossel S, Dovern A, Fink GR (2015). Apraxia and spatial inattention dissociate in left hemisphere stroke. Cortex, 71, 349-358. DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.07.023
  • Ubben SD, Fink GR, Kaesberg S, Kalbe E, Kessler J, Vossel S, Weiss PH (2020). Deficient allo-centric visuospatial processing contributes to apraxic deficits in sub-acute right hemisphere stroke. Journal of Neuropsychology, 14(2), 242-259. DOI: 10.1111/jnp.12191
  • Weiss PH, Ubben SD, Kaesberg S, Kalbe E, Kessler J, Liebig T, Fink GR (2016). Where language meets meaningful action: a combined behavior and lesion analysis of aphasia and apraxia. Brain Structure and Function, 221, 563-576. DOI: 10.1007/s00429-014-0925-3

All publications of the Motor Cognition group

Last Modified: 23.05.2022