Abstract

A new instrument for the assessment of the different levels of gesture processing, as identified by recent cognitive models of apraxia, is presented. The battery comprises fifteen tasks, ten assess the production of meaningful gestures both on command and on imitation, four tasks assess the ability to discriminate and comprehend gestures, one task assesses imitation of meaningless gestures. Items for each task were selected on the basis of the performance of 180 healthy volunteers. Italian norms are given considering age and education for each of the 15 tests.