A New Approach to Rhythm Cueing of Cognitive Functions : The Case of Ideomotor Apraxia

Although positive effects of rhythm cueing on motor control in neurological disorders are known, no studies focused on patients suffering from impaired programming of complex actions. One patient suffering from ideomotor apraxia (a potentially ideal experimental paradigm to test the effect of rhythm on high-level motor control) underwent two rehabilitation training sets differing only for the presence/absence of rhythmic cueing. Both trainings increased the patient’s proficiency, but rhythmic cueing was significantly more effective, during the training as well as during the post-training uncued test. IA represent an effective model to test the effects of rhythm on high-level motor control.