From word superiority to word inferiority: Visual processing of letters and words in pure alexia

TY - JOUR

T1 - From word superiority to word inferiority: Visual processing of letters and words in pure alexia

AU - Habekost, Thomas

AU - Petersen, Anders

AU - Behrmann, Marlene

AU - Starrfelt, Randi

PY - 2014/8

Y1 - 2014/8

N2 - Visual processing and naming of individual letters and short words were investigated in four patients with pure alexia. To test processing at different levels, the same stimuli were studied across a naming task and a visual perception task. The normal word superiority effect was eliminated in both tasks for all patients, and this pattern was more pronounced in the more severely affected patients. The relationship between performance with single letters and words was, however, not straightforward: One patient performed within the normal range on the letter perception task, while being severely impaired in letter naming and word processing, and performance with letters and words was dissociated in all four patients, with word reading being more severely impaired than letter recognition. This suggests that the word reading deficit in pure alexia may not be reduced to an impairment in single letter perception.

AB - Visual processing and naming of individual letters and short words were investigated in four patients with pure alexia. To test processing at different levels, the same stimuli were studied across a naming task and a visual perception task. The normal word superiority effect was eliminated in both tasks for all patients, and this pattern was more pronounced in the more severely affected patients. The relationship between performance with single letters and words was, however, not straightforward: One patient performed within the normal range on the letter perception task, while being severely impaired in letter naming and word processing, and performance with letters and words was dissociated in all four patients, with word reading being more severely impaired than letter recognition. This suggests that the word reading deficit in pure alexia may not be reduced to an impairment in single letter perception.

U2 - 10.1080/02643294.2014.906398

DO - 10.1080/02643294.2014.906398

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 24801564

SN - 0264-3294

VL - 31

SP - 413

EP - 436

JO - Cognitive Neuropsychology

JF - Cognitive Neuropsychology

IS - 5-6

ER -