VALIDITY OF THE CONNECTION INTER-LEXICAL A-SEMANTICS IN THE COGNITIVE MODEL OF PROCESSING PRAXIS

Rothia Gonzalez et al. (1991, 1997) postulated a cognitive model of praxis on which changes were proposed (Cubelli et al., 2000), including the removal of the direct path between both input praxicon and output. Was suggested that to validate an inter-lexical a-semantics path (Cubelli et al., 2000) would enough to find a patientwith preserved ability for imitate familiar gestures, but with disturbances in the ability to access to the meaning of familiar gestures and alterations in ability for imitate unfamiliar gestures. The aim of this work is present two patients whose patterns ofperformance on praxis supports the existence of a pathway inter-lexical a-semantic. We evaluated two patients with Alzheimer type dementia unlikely with a battery of cognitive assessment of apraxia (Politis 2003). Both patients show alterations in test of Imitation of unfamiliar gestures and on tasks which assess semantic action objecttool watching and naming by function), with good performance on the task of imitating familiar gestures. Based on cognitive models of praxis Rothia Gonzalez et al. (1991, 1997) and Cubelli et al. (2000) is require a direct connection between both input praxicon and output to explain the performance of these patients. Of thus, the performance pattern showing both patients confirms existence of a pathway.Interlexical asemantics