g., Fitzgerald et al., 2007; Murray et al., 2007; Riddoch et al., 1998; Tiwari and Amar, 2008). Interestingly, CBS is also associated RGFP966 research buy with metabolic impairment in the SMA (e.g., Garraux et al., 2000). To the best of our knowledge, patients with AHS have not previously been tested on object affordance “compatibility” tasks, or paradigms designed to investigate automatic inhibition of primed actions (e.g., masked priming). We met with four patients with CBS

(see Table 1 for a summary of patients’ details), but unfortunately the motor symptoms experienced by three of these patients were so severe that they were not able to complete basic motor tasks. However, one patient, Patient SA, was able to make speeded manual responses with either hand according to stimuli presented. Patient SA had AHS which affected her right hand (involuntary grasping movements to objects placed within her reach), and no evidence of alien behaviour in her left hand

(see Table 1). Here we report results from two experiments conducted with Patient SA. Experiment 1 was designed to investigate whether object affordance effects were stronger in the alien hand relative to the unaffected hand. Our second study compared automatic inhibition of action in the two hands. If grasping behaviour in AHS arises because of disruption of normal automatic suppression of afforded VE822 responses, one might predict that (i) object affordance effects are exaggerated in the alien hand compared to the non-alien hand (and relative to healthy controls); and (ii) automatic inhibition of automatically evoked responses is reduced in the alien limb. Patient SA was a 72-year-old, right-handed woman who first reported noticing her symptoms Cell Penetrating Peptide 3 years

previously when she had a fall. At that time, it was observed that her speech had a telegraphic quality. She developed progressive difficulty speaking and writing, swallowing, and controlling her right hand. She began to use her right arm less frequently. Although she could voluntarily move it if necessary, there was a lack of spontaneous use. Soon, she began to experience difficulty chopping vegetables using the right hand. She encountered problems with her right hand grip, but at that time had no difficulty letting objects go. Prior to testing, she noted that her walking had slowed. She began to experience difficulties standing from a seated position. There was no family history of neurodegenerative disease. On examination, she had a profound expressive aphasia and impaired articulation. However, she was able to comprehend 3-stage commands well. Visual fields were full to confrontation. There was no evidence of visual or tactile extinction. Eye movements were full, but she was slow to initiate saccades, particularly towards the left compared to the right and there was some evidence of gaze impersistence.