[Visuo-constructive disorders in right and left brain-damaged patients (author's transl)].

There seems to be some lack of agreement between clinical and experimental findings pertaining to the neurodynamic mechanisms of visuo-constructive disabilities in right and left brain-damaged patients. Clinical studies have revealed qualitative differences between drawing disabilities of right and left hemispheric origin, while experimental data suggest that the same mechanism underlies both types of constructional disorder. In order to reconcile these conflicting findings, the existence of "nuclear" impairment and more "peripheral" disturbances in constructional apraxia is suggested. Nuclear impairment seems to consist of a visuo-perceptive disorder independent of the hemispheric locus of lesion; peripheral disturbance could be different in right and left brain-damaged patients, motor and symbolic disorders being typical of left-sided lesions while unilateral spatial neglect would be characteristic of right hemispheric injuries.