Compensatory rearrangements in the cortical control of movement in elderly patients with chronic cerebral ischemia

Abstract

Dynamic praxis was tested in three groups of elderly subjects, including control respondents with mild cognitive impairment, respondents with moderate cognitive impairment, and patients with vascular dementia. The groups were compared with one another. This comparison was methodologically based on Luria’s theory of systemic and dynamic localization of higher mental functions. The elderly subjects manifested disorders in praxis. Locomotor actions become slow in elderly subjects with mild cognitive impairment. These subjects compensated for difficulties in mastering a dynamic program by verbalizing this program and delaying the orientation phase of the action. Respondents with moderate cognitive impairment and clear manifestations of cerebrovascular pathology had stereotypies in the motor sphere and a speed slowdown in motor actions, which were more expressed in patients with vascular dementia. These subjects could only in part compensate for these disorders. But some of them could master a motor program after a cue or education.