The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

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ArticleTitle	The influence that integration of visual and somatosensory information gives imitation on right hemiplegic and aphasic patients with imitation disorder: Examination by the imitation of finger configuration without visual feedback
Language	J
AuthorList	Manabu Okita¹⁾²⁾, Kenzou Miyamoto³⁾, Shu Morioka⁴⁾, Fumio Yagi⁵⁾, Hideto Kaba⁶⁾
Affiliation	¹⁾Department of Rehabilitation, Atago Hospital ²⁾Kochi University Graduate School of Medicine ³⁾Department of Physical Therapy, Tosa Rehabilitation College ⁴⁾Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Health Science, Kio University ⁵⁾Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, Kochi Medical School ⁶⁾Department of Physiology, Kochi Medical School
Publication	Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 27 (2), 167-174, 2011
Received	Jan 7, 2009
Accepted	Aug 11, 2010
Abstract	In this study, integration disorder of visual and somatosensory information was examined using imitation task of the finger configuration in 39 right hemiplegic patients (15 complicated with aphasia, 12 non-aphasic patients and control group of 12 persons). The tasks were studied with the non-paralytic hand. One task with visual feed back from the own moving hand (VF condition) and one without visual feed back (NVF condition). It was found that the correct imitation was significantly dominant in VF than NVF condition (p<0.05) in two groups except the control group and that the right hemiplegic patients with aphasia showed significantly more incorrect imitation than non-aphasic patients in NVF condition (p<0.05). These findings suggest that the imitation of finger configuration without visual feed-back is a critical technique for detecting integration disorder of visual and somatosensory information. Therefore, this examination will have an important meaning as one technique to evaluate the brain function. Also, the result of this study will be the factor that we should consider as a method of the brain function research using the imitation task.
Keywords	right hemiplegia, aphasia, imitation, integration of crossmodal sensory information, imitation without visual feedback from self-hand