Left Hemisphere Dominance for Movement

Abstract

Clinical neuropsychology's dependence upon a core scientific background in clinical neuropsychology, and clinical psychology, neurology, and neuroanatomy, as well as biopsychology, cognitive neuroscience, and cognitive science is the basis of its designation as an APA-approved clinical specialty. This dependence highlights the importance of these scientific underpinnings and the scientist-practitioner model of training, detailed in the Houston Guidelines. This presentation is meant to demonstrate that cognitive neuroscience research should influence our conception of brain behavior relationships, which, in turn, should influence our clinical work. In addition, I want to illustrate how the utilization of converging methods, which is an increasingly popular approach to research, can ensure more valid conclusions about the neuroanatomical substrates for complex skills. Limb apraxia will be used as an example of a deficit that has functional implications and whose cognitive mechanisms and neuroanatomical correlates are better understood as a result of research that combines neuroanatomical imaging of brain damaged patients, functional imaging, and cognitive paradigms. This work demonstrates that left frontoparietal circuits control limb praxis and motor sequencing, suggesting that these complex motor skills should be examined in patients with such damage.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

All of the research reported in this article was supported by grants from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the functional imaging work was supported by the MIND Institute, National Institutes of Health (P01 MH51358; SMR), Medical College of Wisconsin General Clinical Research Center (M01 RR00058), and the W.M. Keck Foundation (Medical College of Wisconsin).

Notes

Note.

*Adapted from Roy and Square (1985).

This article is based upon the 2004 Division 40 Presidential Address.