Long-lasting Diagonistic Dyspraxia Suppressed by RTMS Applied to the Right Motor Cortex

We describe the case of a 58-year-old patient with complete callosal agenesis, who developed after a stroke a long lasting and distressing diagonistic dyspraxia. We found two original treatments to relieve the patient from his left limb conflicting movements. Reinforcing left arm sensory input minimized dyspraxic movements but was difficult to apply daily and was found unsatisfactory by the patient. As left anarchic, unwished movements of diagonistic dyspraxia have been attributed to the lack of inhibition exerted by supplementary motor area on right motor cortex, we applied sham-controlled rTMS to the right motor cortex. This procedure provided a dramatic suppression of left-hand involuntary movements. To our knowledge, this is the first description of the successful treatment of diagonistic dyspraxia.