Anosognosia of Hemiplegia: An Analysis of Implicit and Explicit Access to the Body Schema and Motor Control Systems during the Genesis of Action
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2006
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Haverford College. Department of Psychology
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Abstract
Anosognosia for hemiplegia (AHP) is characterized by a lack of awareness of hemiplegia following stroke. The purpose of the present study was to investigate two alternative accounts of AHP. The first account is that AHP results from an impaired body representation during the generation of action. Alternatively, the second account is that motor planning systems are intact, but not accessible for explicit report. Patients with right hemisphere lesions and clinical symptoms of AHP (N=3) and normal control subjects (N=18) completed two primary tasks. One involved finger movements and measured explicit body schema access and awareness, while the other involved making right-left hand judgments and measured implicit body schema access and awareness. Additionally, subjects were evaluated for cognitive impairment and neglect. All patients performed poorly relative to normal controls on both the implicit and explicit tasks. This suggests that AHP may be associated with a general disruption of the motor control system. Future research is necessary to establish whether a disruption in the motor system of patients with AHP during the genesis of action occurs during the generation of a motor plan or during the sensory comparison between intended and actual movement.