PANTOMIME RECOGNITION IMPAIRMENT IN APHASIA - AN ANALYSIS OF ERROR TYPES

Aphasic patients were administered a pantomine recognition test (PRT) and two verbal comprehension tests with the same perceptual-motor, semantic, and neutral response foils in a test of the hypothesis that both pantomime and verbal comprehension impairments reflect the same underlying aphasic disorder. Perceptual-motor errors were significantly more common than semantic and neutral errors on the PRT, whereas semantic errors were significantly more common on the combined verbal tests. The results support the view that errors in pantomime recognition among aphasic patients may occur as a function of a deficit in perceptual-motor ability in addition to semantic impairment. Pantomime recognition performance did not correlate significantly with measures of language or praXiS. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.