ABSTRACT
Any behavioural neuroscientist who peruses the literature on limb apraxia and subcortical dysfunction inevitably will arrive at two conclusions: First, the phenomenon is not well studied, with a relatively small number of investigations addressing the issue. Second, there is little consensus regarding the existence of the phenomenon and, therefore, little agreement about the role of subcortical structures in praxis. The literature which does exist on this subject has numerous problems. Foremost among them is that the definition of praxis varies from study to study, and the definition determines what tests of praxis are used. Some authors have heavily weighted their measures with the imitation of nonsense hand postures and movements. However, in this chapter we will apply the more classical definition of praxis as learned, skilled movements (Heilman & Rothi, 1993).
