Recognising motor impersistence at the bedside

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17 Oct 2026 0 comments

Motor impersistence is the inability to sustain a voluntary movement or posture, such as keeping the eyes closed, the tongue protruded or an arm extended (despite adequate strength and initial effort). First described in patients with right-hemispheric brain lesions due to stroke,1–3 motor impersistence is now recognised in a wide range of neurological conditions. These include Huntington’s disease4 and other choreiform disorders,5 where motor impersistence accompanies chorea and represents a complementary failure to maintain, rather than to suppress, movement; neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease6; callosal disconnection syndromes7–9 and focal lesions to various brain regions, particularly the right frontal and central regions10 but also the thalamus11–13 and basal ganglia.13 14

Clinically, motor impersistence is valuable as a relatively specific marker...