Phonolexical agraphia: Superimposition of acquired lexical agraphia on developmental phonological dysgraphia

Andrew Kirk, Lee X. Blonder, Eliahu Wertman, Kenneth M. Heilman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

SUMMARY. Study of neuropsychological sequelae of a focal acquired brain lesion may bring out and help delineate the features of a compensated developmental language disorder and its anatomical substrate. A left-handed man with a history of phonological developmental dyslexia and dysgraphia learned in early adulthood to read and write using a lexical system. Following a small posterior right parictal infarct when aged 56 yrs he developed a severe agraphia displaying features of phonological dysgraphia with impaired segmentation and features of lexical agraphia. Writing was severely impaired for all classes of word and nonword stimuli but his errors did not resemble those attributable to a deficit in the system responsible for the short-term storage of the graphemic representation of a word (graphemic output buffer). These observations imply that an acquired lexical agraphia has been superimposed on his developmental phonological dysgraphia, resulting in a combined or 'phonolexica' agraphia.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1977-1996
Number of pages20
JournalBrain
Volume114
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 1991

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Dr Melvin Greer for referring O.C. and Dr Kytja Voeller for introducing us to the LAC test. Most of all we thank O.C. and his wife for their willing cooperation. This study was supported in part by the Memory Disorders Clinic of the Division of Aging, Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services of the State of Florida and by the Medical Research Service of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Funding

We thank Dr Melvin Greer for referring O.C. and Dr Kytja Voeller for introducing us to the LAC test. Most of all we thank O.C. and his wife for their willing cooperation. This study was supported in part by the Memory Disorders Clinic of the Division of Aging, Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services of the State of Florida and by the Medical Research Service of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

FundersFunder number
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Clinical Neurology

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