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Apraxia

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Encyclopedia of Geropsychology

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Apraxia is a neurological disorder which affects the ability to perform skilled and purposeful movements. It is important to note that the disability in the apraxic patient is not explained by impairment in gait, tremor, weakness, intellectual or verbal comprehension, and motor and/or sensorial deficits. Among the core symptoms in apraxia are the incapacity to perform motor acts on verbal command, mimics, use of tools, and to organize the sequence of movements to conclude an action. Nonetheless, apraxia comprises several subtypes and its heterogeneous clinical manifestation affects the severity and specificity of the deficits.

The term apraxia derives from the greek a (absence of) + prassein (ability to perform). The disorder has been described previously by another neurologist. The German philosopher and philologue Heymann Steinthal (1871) was probably the first to use the term to refer to a clinical manifestation frequently observed in aphasic patients (e.g., impairment in use of...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade Fundação Mineira de Educação e Cultura - FUMEC, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Lafaiete Guimarães Moreira

  2. Faculdade de Ciências Médicas de Minas Gerais, Intituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia em Medicina Molecular, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Jonas Jardim de Paula

  3. Department of Mental Health, Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia em Medicina Molecular, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Malloy-Diniz Leandro Fernandes

Authors
  1. Lafaiete Guimarães Moreira
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  2. Jonas Jardim de Paula
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  3. Malloy-Diniz Leandro Fernandes
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Correspondence to Malloy-Diniz Leandro Fernandes .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Nancy A. Pachana

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Moreira, L.G., de Paula, J.J., Leandro Fernandes, MD. (2016). Apraxia. In: Pachana, N. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geropsychology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-080-3_312-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-080-3_312-1

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