TY  - JOUR
A1  - Allan, Eric
A1  - Bossdorf, Oliver
A1  - Dormann, Carsten F.
A1  - Prati, Daniel
A1  - Gossner, Martin M.
A1  - Tscharntke, Teja
A1  - Blüthgen, Nico
A1  - Bellach, Michaela
A1  - Birkhofer, Klaus
A1  - Boch, Steffen
A1  - Böhm, Stefan
A1  - Börschig, Carmen
A1  - Chatzinotas, Antonis
A1  - Christ, Sabina
A1  - Daniel, Rolf
A1  - Diekötter, Tim
A1  - Fischer, Christiane
A1  - Friedl, Thomas
A1  - Glaser, Karin
A1  - Hallmann, Christine
A1  - Hodac, Ladislav
A1  - Hölzel, Norbert
A1  - Jung, Kirsten
A1  - Klein, Alexandra-Maria
A1  - Klaus, Valentin H.
A1  - Kleinebecker, Till
A1  - Krauss, Jochen
A1  - Lange, Markus
A1  - Morris, E. Kathryn
A1  - Müller, Jörg
A1  - Nacke, Heiko
A1  - Pasalic, Esther
A1  - Rillig, Matthias C.
A1  - Rothenwoehrer, Christoph
A1  - Schally, Peter
A1  - Scherber, Christoph
A1  - Schulze, Waltraud X.
A1  - Socher, Stephanie A.
A1  - Steckel, Juliane
A1  - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf
A1  - Türke, Manfred
A1  - Weiner, Christiane N.
A1  - Werner, Michael
A1  - Westphal, Catrin
A1  - Wolters, Volkmar
A1  - Wubet, Tesfaye
A1  - Gockel, Sonja
A1  - Gorke, Martin
A1  - Hemp, Andreas
A1  - Renner, Swen C.
A1  - Schöning, Ingo
A1  - Pfeiffer, Simone
A1  - König-Ries, Birgitta
A1  - Buscot, Francois
A1  - Linsenmair, Karl Eduard
A1  - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef
A1  - Weisser, Wolfgang W.
A1  - Fischer, Markus
T1  - Interannual variation in land-use intensity enhances grassland multidiversity
JF  - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
N2  - Although temporal heterogeneity is a well-accepted driver of biodiversity, effects of interannual variation in land-use intensity (LUI) have not been addressed yet. Additionally, responses to land use can differ greatly among different organisms; therefore, overall effects of land-use on total local biodiversity are hardly known. To test for effects of LUI (quantified as the combined intensity of fertilization, grazing, and mowing) and interannual variation in LUI (SD in LUI across time), we introduce a unique measure of whole-ecosystem biodiversity, multidiversity. This synthesizes individual diversity measures across up to 49 taxonomic groups of plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria from 150 grasslands. Multidiversity declined with increasing LUI among grasslands, particularly for rarer species and aboveground organisms, whereas common species and belowground groups were less sensitive. However, a high level of interannual variation in LUI increased overall multidiversity at low LUI and was even more beneficial for rarer species because it slowed the rate at which the multidiversity of rare species declined with increasing LUI. In more intensively managed grasslands, the diversity of rarer species was, on average, 18% of the maximum diversity across all grasslands when LUI was static over time but increased to 31% of the maximum when LUI changed maximally over time. In addition to decreasing overall LUI, we suggest varying LUI across years as a complementary strategy to promote biodiversity conservation.
KW  - biodiversity loss
KW  - agricultural grasslands
KW  - Biodiversity Exploratories
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1312213111
SN  - 0027-8424
VL  - 111
IS  - 1
SP  - 308
EP  - 313
PB  - National Acad. of Sciences
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Tucker, Marlee A.
A1  - Boehning-Gaese, Katrin
A1  - Fagan, William F.
A1  - Fryxell, John M.
A1  - Van Moorter, Bram
A1  - Alberts, Susan C.
A1  - Ali, Abdullahi H.
A1  - Allen, Andrew M.
A1  - Attias, Nina
A1  - Avgar, Tal
A1  - Bartlam-Brooks, Hattie
A1  - Bayarbaatar, Buuveibaatar
A1  - Belant, Jerrold L.
A1  - Bertassoni, Alessandra
A1  - Beyer, Dean
A1  - Bidner, Laura
A1  - van Beest, Floris M.
A1  - Blake, Stephen
A1  - Blaum, Niels
A1  - Bracis, Chloe
A1  - Brown, Danielle
A1  - de Bruyn, P. J. Nico
A1  - Cagnacci, Francesca
A1  - Calabrese, Justin M.
A1  - Camilo-Alves, Constanca
A1  - Chamaille-Jammes, Simon
A1  - Chiaradia, Andre
A1  - Davidson, Sarah C.
A1  - Dennis, Todd
A1  - DeStefano, Stephen
A1  - Diefenbach, Duane
A1  - Douglas-Hamilton, Iain
A1  - Fennessy, Julian
A1  - Fichtel, Claudia
A1  - Fiedler, Wolfgang
A1  - Fischer, Christina
A1  - Fischhoff, Ilya
A1  - Fleming, Christen H.
A1  - Ford, Adam T.
A1  - Fritz, Susanne A.
A1  - Gehr, Benedikt
A1  - Goheen, Jacob R.
A1  - Gurarie, Eliezer
A1  - Hebblewhite, Mark
A1  - Heurich, Marco
A1  - Hewison, A. J. Mark
A1  - Hof, Christian
A1  - Hurme, Edward
A1  - Isbell, Lynne A.
A1  - Janssen, Rene
A1  - Jeltsch, Florian
A1  - Kaczensky, Petra
A1  - Kane, Adam
A1  - Kappeler, Peter M.
A1  - Kauffman, Matthew
A1  - Kays, Roland
A1  - Kimuyu, Duncan
A1  - Koch, Flavia
A1  - Kranstauber, Bart
A1  - LaPoint, Scott
A1  - Leimgruber, Peter
A1  - Linnell, John D. C.
A1  - Lopez-Lopez, Pascual
A1  - Markham, A. Catherine
A1  - Mattisson, Jenny
A1  - Medici, Emilia Patricia
A1  - Mellone, Ugo
A1  - Merrill, Evelyn
A1  - Mourao, Guilherme de Miranda
A1  - Morato, Ronaldo G.
A1  - Morellet, Nicolas
A1  - Morrison, Thomas A.
A1  - Diaz-Munoz, Samuel L.
A1  - Mysterud, Atle
A1  - Nandintsetseg, Dejid
A1  - Nathan, Ran
A1  - Niamir, Aidin
A1  - Odden, John
A1  - Oliveira-Santos, Luiz Gustavo R.
A1  - Olson, Kirk A.
A1  - Patterson, Bruce D.
A1  - de Paula, Rogerio Cunha
A1  - Pedrotti, Luca
A1  - Reineking, Bjorn
A1  - Rimmler, Martin
A1  - Rogers, Tracey L.
A1  - Rolandsen, Christer Moe
A1  - Rosenberry, Christopher S.
A1  - Rubenstein, Daniel I.
A1  - Safi, Kamran
A1  - Said, Sonia
A1  - Sapir, Nir
A1  - Sawyer, Hall
A1  - Schmidt, Niels Martin
A1  - Selva, Nuria
A1  - Sergiel, Agnieszka
A1  - Shiilegdamba, Enkhtuvshin
A1  - Silva, Joao Paulo
A1  - Singh, Navinder
A1  - Solberg, Erling J.
A1  - Spiegel, Orr
A1  - Strand, Olav
A1  - Sundaresan, Siva
A1  - Ullmann, Wiebke
A1  - Voigt, Ulrich
A1  - Wall, Jake
A1  - Wattles, David
A1  - Wikelski, Martin
A1  - Wilmers, Christopher C.
A1  - Wilson, John W.
A1  - Wittemyer, George
A1  - Zieba, Filip
A1  - Zwijacz-Kozica, Tomasz
A1  - Mueller, Thomas
T1  - Moving in the Anthropocene
BT  - global reductions in terrestrial mammalian movements
JF  - Science
N2  - Animal movement is fundamental for ecosystem functioning and species survival, yet the effects of the anthropogenic footprint on animal movements have not been estimated across species. Using a unique GPS-tracking database of 803 individuals across 57 species, we found that movements of mammals in areas with a comparatively high human footprint were on average one-half to one-third the extent of their movements in areas with a low human footprint. We attribute this reduction to behavioral changes of individual animals and to the exclusion of species with long-range movements from areas with higher human impact. Global loss of vagility alters a key ecological trait of animals that affects not only population persistence but also ecosystem processes such as predator-prey interactions, nutrient cycling, and disease transmission.
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aam9712
SN  - 0036-8075
SN  - 1095-9203
VL  - 359
IS  - 6374
SP  - 466
EP  - 469
PB  - American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Soliveres, Santiago
A1  - van der Plas, Fons
A1  - Manning, Peter
A1  - Prati, Daniel
A1  - Gossner, Martin M.
A1  - Renner, Swen C.
A1  - Alt, Fabian
A1  - Arndt, Hartmut
A1  - Baumgartner, Vanessa
A1  - Binkenstein, Julia
A1  - Birkhofer, Klaus
A1  - Blaser, Stefan
A1  - Blüthgen, Nico
A1  - Boch, Steffen
A1  - Böhm, Stefan
A1  - Börschig, Carmen
A1  - Buscot, Francois
A1  - Diekötter, Tim
A1  - Heinze, Johannes
A1  - Hölzel, Norbert
A1  - Jung, Kirsten
A1  - Klaus, Valentin H.
A1  - Kleinebecker, Till
A1  - Klemmer, Sandra
A1  - Krauss, Jochen
A1  - Lange, Markus
A1  - Morris, E. Kathryn
A1  - Müller, Jörg
A1  - Oelmann, Yvonne
A1  - Overmann, Jörg
A1  - Pasalic, Esther
A1  - Rillig, Matthias C.
A1  - Schaefer, H. Martin
A1  - Schloter, Michael
A1  - Schmitt, Barbara
A1  - Schöning, Ingo
A1  - Schrumpf, Marion
A1  - Sikorski, Johannes
A1  - Socher, Stephanie A.
A1  - Solly, Emily F.
A1  - Sonnemann, Ilja
A1  - Sorkau, Elisabeth
A1  - Steckel, Juliane
A1  - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf
A1  - Stempfhuber, Barbara
A1  - Tschapka, Marco
A1  - Türke, Manfred
A1  - Venter, Paul C.
A1  - Weiner, Christiane N.
A1  - Weisser, Wolfgang W.
A1  - Werner, Michael
A1  - Westphal, Catrin
A1  - Wilcke, Wolfgang
A1  - Wolters, Volkmar
A1  - Wubet, Tesfaye
A1  - Wurst, Susanne
A1  - Fischer, Markus
A1  - Allan, Eric
T1  - Biodiversity at multiple trophic levels is needed for ecosystem multifunctionality
JF  - Nature : the international weekly journal of science
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1038/nature19092
SN  - 0028-0836
SN  - 1476-4687
VL  - 536
SP  - 456
EP  - +
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
CY  - London
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Soliveres, Santiago
A1  - Manning, Peter
A1  - Prati, Daniel
A1  - Gossner, Martin M.
A1  - Alt, Fabian
A1  - Arndt, Hartmut
A1  - Baumgartner, Vanessa
A1  - Binkenstein, Julia
A1  - Birkhofer, Klaus
A1  - Blaser, Stefan
A1  - Bluethgen, Nico
A1  - Boch, Steffen
A1  - Boehm, Stefan
A1  - Boerschig, Carmen
A1  - Buscot, Francois
A1  - Diekoetter, Tim
A1  - Heinze, Johannes
A1  - Hoelzel, Norbert
A1  - Jung, Kirsten
A1  - Klaus, Valentin H.
A1  - Klein, Alexandra-Maria
A1  - Kleinebecker, Till
A1  - Klemmer, Sandra
A1  - Krauss, Jochen
A1  - Lange, Markus
A1  - Morris, E. Kathryn
A1  - Mueller, Joerg
A1  - Oelmann, Yvonne
A1  - Overmann, Jörg
A1  - Pasalic, Esther
A1  - Renner, Swen C.
A1  - Rillig, Matthias C.
A1  - Schaefer, H. Martin
A1  - Schloter, Michael
A1  - Schmitt, Barbara
A1  - Schoening, Ingo
A1  - Schrumpf, Marion
A1  - Sikorski, Johannes
A1  - Socher, Stephanie A.
A1  - Solly, Emily F.
A1  - Sonnemann, Ilja
A1  - Sorkau, Elisabeth
A1  - Steckel, Juliane
A1  - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf
A1  - Stempfhuber, Barbara
A1  - Tschapka, Marco
A1  - Tuerke, Manfred
A1  - Venter, Paul
A1  - Weiner, Christiane N.
A1  - Weisser, Wolfgang W.
A1  - Werner, Michael
A1  - Westphal, Catrin
A1  - Wilcke, Wolfgang
A1  - Wolters, Volkmar
A1  - Wubet, Tesfaye
A1  - Wurst, Susanne
A1  - Fischer, Markus
A1  - Allan, Eric
T1  - Locally rare species influence grassland ecosystem multifunctionality
JF  - Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London : B, Biological sciences
N2  - Species diversity promotes the delivery of multiple ecosystem functions (multifunctionality). However, the relative functional importance of rare and common species in driving the biodiversity multifunctionality relationship remains unknown. We studied the relationship between the diversity of rare and common species (according to their local abundances and across nine different trophic groups), and multifunctionality indices derived from 14 ecosystem functions on 150 grasslands across a land use intensity (LUI) gradient. The diversity of above- and below-ground rare species had opposite effects, with rare above-ground species being associated with high levels of multifunctionality, probably because their effects on different functions did not trade off against each other. Conversely, common species were only related to average, not high, levels of multifunctionality, and their functional effects declined with LUI. Apart from the community level effects of diversity, we found significant positive associations between the abundance of individual species and multifunctionality in 6% of the species tested. Species specific functional effects were best predicted by their response to LUI: species that declined in abundance with land use intensification were those associated with higher levels of multifunctionality. Our results highlight the importance of rare species for ecosystem multifunctionality and help guiding future conservation priorities.
KW  - biodiversity
KW  - common species
KW  - ecosystem function
KW  - identity hypothesis
KW  - land use
KW  - multitrophic
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0269
SN  - 0962-8436
SN  - 1471-2970
VL  - 371
SP  - 3175
EP  - 3185
PB  - Royal Society
CY  - London
ER  - 
TY  - BOOK
A1  - Günther, Oliver
A1  - Petsche, Hans-Joachim
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
A1  - Franz, Norbert P.
A1  - Steup, Martin
A1  - Sixtus, Elena
A1  - Heimann, Heinz-Dieter
A1  - Pröve, Ralf
ED  - Petsche, Hans-Joachim
T1  - Raum und Zahl im Fokus der Wissenschaften
BT  - eine multidisziplinäre Vorlesungsreihe
T3  - Studieren ++ : Konzepte, Perspektiven, Kompetenzen ; 1
N2  - Die nun begonnene Reihe „studieren++“ resultiert aus einer von der Universität Potsdam angebotenen Vorlesungsreihe. Das Besondere an dieser Vorlesungsreihe ist der multidisziplinäre Anspruch und die konsequent umgesetzte Zusammenarbeit über Disziplingrenzen hinweg. Die nicht nur über Instituts-, sondern über Fakultätsgrenzen praktizierte Interdisziplinarität erlaubt die Betrachtung eines Problems oder Sachverhalts aus unterschiedlichen Blickwinkeln. Wissenschaftliche Fragestellungen sind komplex und nicht immer auf eine Disziplin beschränkt. Sie in ihrer Gänze erfassen und nachhaltige Lösungsstrategien oder Konzepte entwickeln zu können gelingt oft nur durch eine multidisziplinäre Kooperation. Eine Lehrveranstaltung wie die vorliegende ist nicht nur für die Studierenden einer Universität eine hervorragende Möglichkeit, um über die Grenzen der eigenen Disziplin hinaus zu blicken und die Zusammenarbeit mit Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern aus anderen Bereichen zu pflegen. So lernt man, sich in andere Sichtweisen hineinzuversetzen und sich zwischen den Disziplinen zu bewegen – eine Kompetenz, die in der hochkomplexen Arbeitswelt von heute von hohem Nutzen ist. 
Der vorliegende erste Band der Reihe hat „Raum und Zahl“ zum Thema und ist aus einer Ringvorlesung aus dem Wintersemester 2013/2014 entstanden. Drei der fünf Fakultäten, insgesamt neun Institute der Universität Potsdam, haben sich an der Vorlesung beteiligt und sich dieses spannenden Themas angenommen. Als jemand, der sich jahrelang wissenschaftlich mit algorithmischer Geometrie sowie mit raumbezogenen Datenbanken und Navigationssystemen beschäftigt hat, kann ich nur bekräftigen, dass die Bezüge zwischen Raum und Zahl, zwischen Räumen und Zahlen, noch viel stärker im öffentlichen Bewusstsein verankert gehören. Räume auch quantitativ zu erfassen und zu verstehen ist eine Kulturtechnik, die an Wichtigkeit eher noch zunimmt, vor allem vor dem Hintergrund, dass wir genetisch nicht allzu gut auf derartige Herausforderungen vorbereitet sind. Denn viele unserer einschlägigen Gene entstammen noch aus der Zeit der Savanne, einer Zeit, zu der das Raumkonzept sich fast ausschließlich auf die unmittelbare räumliche Umgebung bezog und Zahlen jenseits von 10 nur wenig Relevanz für das eigene Überleben hatten. 
Als Präsident der Universität Potsdam freut es mich ganz besonders, dass sich die hier vertretenen Wissenschaftler bereit erklärt haben, ihre Überlegungen mit den Studierenden und ihren Kolleginnen und Kollegen zu teilen. Herrn Kollegen Hans-Joachim Petsche möchte ich für sein Engagement danken und ihm zu dieser gelungenen Reihe gratulieren. Der Geist der Wissenschaft, der nicht nur einsam im Büro oder Labor gelebt wird, sondern gerade an einer Universität auch aktiv nach außen getragen werden sollte, wird hier in besonderer Weise sichtbar. Ich wünsche Ihnen viel Freude bei der Lektüre des Bandes und freue mich auf weitere Veröffentlichungen in dieser Reihe.
KW  - Raum
KW  - Zahl
KW  - Aufsatzsammlung
Y1  - 2015
SN  - 978-3-86464-082-7
PB  - Trafo
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - GEN
A1  - Lachmair, Martin
A1  - Ruiz Fernandez, Susana
A1  - Bury, Nils-Alexander
A1  - Gerjets, Peter
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
A1  - Bock, Otmar L.
T1  - How body orientation affects concepts of space, time and valence
BT  - functional relevance of integrating sensorimotor experiences during word processing
T2  - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe
N2  - The aim of the present study was to test the functional relevance of the spatial concepts UP or DOWN for words that use these concepts either literally (space) or metaphorically (time, valence). A functional relevance would imply a symmetrical relationship between the spatial concepts and words related to these concepts, showing that processing words activate the related spatial concepts on one hand, but also that an activation of the concepts will ease the retrieval of a related word on the other. For the latter, the rotation angle of participant's body position was manipulated either to an upright or a head-down tilted body position to activate the related spatial concept. Afterwards participants produced in a within-subject design previously memorized words of the concepts space, time and valence according to the pace of a metronome. All words were related either to the spatial concept UP or DOWN. The results including Bayesian analyses show (1) a significant interaction between body position and words using the concepts UP and DOWN literally, (2) a marginal significant interaction between body position and temporal words and (3) no effect between body position and valence words. However, post-hoc analyses suggest no difference between experiments. Thus, the authors concluded that integrating sensorimotor experiences is indeed of functional relevance for all three concepts of space, time and valence. However, the strength of this functional relevance depends on how close words are linked to mental concepts representing vertical space.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 505 
KW  - mental timeline
KW  - cognition
KW  - language
KW  - representation
KW  - hypothesis
KW  - mechanisms
KW  - future
KW  - flies
KW  - line
KW  - mind
Y1  - 2019
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-410942
SN  - 1866-8364
IS  - 505
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Lachmair, Martin
A1  - Fernandez, Susana Ruiz
A1  - Bury, Nils-Alexander
A1  - Gerjets, Peter
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
A1  - Bock, Otmar L.
T1  - How Body Orientation Affects Concepts of Space, Time and Valence: Functional Relevance of Integrating Sensorimotor Experiences during Word Processing
JF  - PLoS one
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0165795
SN  - 1932-6203
VL  - 11
PB  - PLoS
CY  - San Fransisco
ER  - 
TY  - GEN
A1  - Adam, Jos J.
A1  - Bovend'Eerdt, Thamar J. H.
A1  - Dooren, Fleur E. P. van
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
A1  - Pratt, Jay
T1  - The closer the better
BT  - hand proximity dynamically affects letter recognition accuracy
T2  - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe
N2  - A growing literature has suggested that processing of visual information presented near the hands is facilitated. In this study, we investigated whether the near-hands superiority effect also occurs with the hands moving. In two experiments, participants performed a cyclical bimanual movement task requiring concurrent visual identification of briefly presented letters. For both the static and dynamic hand conditions, the results showed improved letter recognition performance with the hands closer to the stimuli. The finding that the encoding advantage for near-hand stimuli also occurred with the hands moving suggests that the effect is regulated in real time, in accordance with the concept of a bimodal neural system that dynamically updates hand position in external space.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 607 
KW  - perception and action
Y1  - 2020
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-432963
SN  - 1866-8364
IS  - 607
SP  - 1533
EP  - 1538
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Adam, Jos J.
A1  - Bovend'Eerdt, Thamar J. H.
A1  - van Dooren, Fleur E. P.
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
A1  - Pratt, Jay
T1  - The closer the better hand proximity dynamically affects letter recognition accuracy
JF  - Attention, perception, & psychophysics : AP&P ; a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc.
N2  - A growing literature has suggested that processing of visual information presented near the hands is facilitated. In this study, we investigated whether the near-hands superiority effect also occurs with the hands moving. In two experiments, participants performed a cyclical bimanual movement task requiring concurrent visual identification of briefly presented letters. For both the static and dynamic hand conditions, the results showed improved letter recognition performance with the hands closer to the stimuli. The finding that the encoding advantage for near-hand stimuli also occurred with the hands moving suggests that the effect is regulated in real time, in accordance with the concept of a bimodal neural system that dynamically updates hand position in external space.
KW  - Perception and action
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-012-0339-3
SN  - 1943-3921
VL  - 74
IS  - 7
SP  - 1533
EP  - 1538
PB  - Springer
CY  - New York
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Achilles, E. I. S.
A1  - Fink, G. R.
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
A1  - Dovern, A.
A1  - Held, A.
A1  - Timpert, D. C.
A1  - Schroeter, C.
A1  - Schuetz, K.
A1  - Kloetzsch, C.
A1  - Weiss, P. H.
T1  - Effect of meaning on apraxic finger imitation deficits
JF  - Neuropsychologia : an international journal in behavioural and cognitive neuroscience
N2  - Apraxia typically results from left-hemispheric (LH), but also from right-hemispheric (RH) stroke, and often impairs gesture imitation. Especially in LH stroke, it is important to differentiate apraxia-induced gesture imitation deficits from those due to co-morbid aphasia and associated semantic deficits, possibly influencing the imitation of meaningful (MF) gestures. To explore this issue, we first investigated if the 10 supposedly meaningless (ML) gestures of a widely used finger imitation test really carry no meaning, or if the test also contains MF gestures, by asking healthy subjects (n=45) to classify these gestures as MF or ML. Most healthy subjects (98%) classified three of the 10 gestures as clearly MF. Only two gestures were considered predominantly ML. We next assessed how imitation in stroke patients (255 LH, 113 RH stroke) is influenced by gesture meaning and how aphasia influences imitation of LH stroke patients (n=208). All patients and especially patients with imitation deficits (17% of LH, 27% of RH stroke patients) imitated MF gestures significantly better than ML gestures. Importantly, meaningfulness-scores of all 10 gestures significantly predicted imitation scores of patients with imitation deficits. Furthermore, especially in LH stroke patients with imitation deficits, the severity of aphasia significantly influenced the imitation of MF, but not ML gestures. Our findings in a large patient cohort support current cognitive models of imitation and strongly suggest that ML gestures are particularly sensitive to detect imitation deficits while minimising confounding effects of aphasia which affect the imitation of MF gestures in LH stroke patients. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
KW  - Apraxia
KW  - Meaning
KW  - Cognitive models of imitation
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.12.022
SN  - 0028-3932
SN  - 1873-3514
VL  - 82
SP  - 74
EP  - 83
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Oxford
ER  -