Which apraxia involves difficulty constructing or copying complex figures and tasks, often after a right-hemisphere lesion?

Which apraxia involves difficulty constructing or copying complex figures and tasks, often after a right-hemisphere lesion?

• A. Hemi-neglect/hemi-inattention
• B. Dressing apraxia
• C. Ideational apraxia
• D. Constructional apraxia

Answer: (D)

Constructional apraxia is a deficit in spatial organization and the motor planning needed to construct or copy complex figures and tasks, typically arising from right-hemisphere (often parietal) damage. When the right side of the brain is impaired, people struggle with organizing visual-spatial information into a coherent construction, so tasks like copying a complex figure, drawing a clock, or assembling blocks become error-filled or incomplete. This specific difficulty with constructing and reproducing complex spatial arrangements distinguishes it from other apraxias. Ideational apraxia involves problems with understanding the purpose or sequence of using an object, not the construction itself; dressing apraxia involves difficulty dressing due to body-schema or coordination issues; and hemi-neglect is an attentional inattention to one side of space, which can accompany these problems but is not defined by the construction/copying deficit.

Constructional apraxia is a deficit in spatial organization and the motor planning needed to construct or copy complex figures and tasks, typically arising from right-hemisphere (often parietal) damage. When the right side of the brain is impaired, people struggle with organizing visual-spatial information into a coherent construction, so tasks like copying a complex figure, drawing a clock, or assembling blocks become error-filled or incomplete. This specific difficulty with constructing and reproducing complex spatial arrangements distinguishes it from other apraxias. Ideational apraxia involves problems with understanding the purpose or sequence of using an object, not the construction itself; dressing apraxia involves difficulty dressing due to body-schema or coordination issues; and hemi-neglect is an attentional inattention to one side of space, which can accompany these problems but is not defined by the construction/copying deficit.