TY - ABST
T1 - A second case of the thrid alexia in pure form
AU - Starrfelt, Randi
AU - Gade, Anders
AU - Gerlach, Christian
AU - Udesen, Hanne
PY - 2000/5
Y1 - 2000/5
N2 - We present a patient (J.M.) with severe alexia and agraphia in the absence
of aphasia, and with intact reading and writing of numbers. J.M., a right-
handed 18-year-old man, presented with alexia and agraphia after concus-
sion. CT and MR were normal. J.M. is impaired in identifying, writing,
and copying letters. His reading and writing of numbers are normal, as is
his written arithmetic. Object naming is within normal range, and his copy-
ing and drawing of figures and objects are good. In a single letter identi-
fication task, J.M. was able to identify only 13/29 uppercase letters and
18/29 lowercase letters. He is almost completely unable to read words,
and we have not observed any whole-word reading. Rather, J.M. uses a
slow and laborious letter-by-letter strategy when trying to read words, in-
cluding his own name, and misidentification of letters is frequent. His nam-
ing to oral spelling is good, as is his oral spelling of dictated words. In
writing, letters are partly superimposed on each other, making the words
virtually unreadable. There are no obvious spelling errors, but some letters
are poorly formed. By contrast to his reading, J.M. was able to identify
written numbers (1–7 digits) quickly and correctly. He is also able to write
numbers and perform written calculations without difficulties. This pat-
tern of performance closely resembles that described by Anderson, Dam-
asio, & Damasio. Their patient, presumably the only one on record with
this syndrome, had a lesion in Exner’s area in the left premotor cortex.
AB - We present a patient (J.M.) with severe alexia and agraphia in the absence
of aphasia, and with intact reading and writing of numbers. J.M., a right-
handed 18-year-old man, presented with alexia and agraphia after concus-
sion. CT and MR were normal. J.M. is impaired in identifying, writing,
and copying letters. His reading and writing of numbers are normal, as is
his written arithmetic. Object naming is within normal range, and his copy-
ing and drawing of figures and objects are good. In a single letter identi-
fication task, J.M. was able to identify only 13/29 uppercase letters and
18/29 lowercase letters. He is almost completely unable to read words,
and we have not observed any whole-word reading. Rather, J.M. uses a
slow and laborious letter-by-letter strategy when trying to read words, in-
cluding his own name, and misidentification of letters is frequent. His nam-
ing to oral spelling is good, as is his oral spelling of dictated words. In
writing, letters are partly superimposed on each other, making the words
virtually unreadable. There are no obvious spelling errors, but some letters
are poorly formed. By contrast to his reading, J.M. was able to identify
written numbers (1–7 digits) quickly and correctly. He is also able to write
numbers and perform written calculations without difficulties. This pat-
tern of performance closely resembles that described by Anderson, Dam-
asio, & Damasio. Their patient, presumably the only one on record with
this syndrome, had a lesion in Exner’s area in the left premotor cortex.
M3 - Conference abstract in journal
SN - 1355-6177
SP - 398
JO - Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society
JF - Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society
ER -