A comparison of apraxia in progressive supranuclear palsy and cortical basal ganglionic degeneration

This study used the Test of Oral and Limb Apraxia (TOLA) to compare the pattern of apraxic errors, as defined by the Florida Apraxia Battery scoring system, between 13 patients with cortical basal ganglionic degeneration (CBD) and 15 patients with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). The results showed that both PSP and CBD patients exhibited apraxia; CBD patients had more severe apraxia than PSP patients; and instructions, gesture transitivity, gesture proximity, and the hand used to perform gestures all influenced performance of the two groups differentially. More interestly, both groups made similar kinds of errors, with one exception; CBD patients made more internal configuration errors than PSP patients. The finding of apraxia in PSP and the differences in the nature of apraxia in CBD and PSP patients may have diagnostic implications.