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Case Reports
. 2008 Jul-Aug;44(7):861-8.
doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2007.06.002. Epub 2007 Dec 23.

Allographic agraphia: a case study

Alina Menichelli  1 , Brenda Rapp, Carlo Semenza
Affiliations
Case Reports

Allographic agraphia: a case study

Alina Menichelli et al. Cortex. 2008 Jul-Aug.

Abstract

We report the case of patient MN, diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, who exhibited a severe impairment in writing letters and words in upper-case print in the face of accurate production of the same stimuli in lower-case cursive. In contrast to her written production difficulties, MN was unimpaired in recognizing visually presented letters and words in upper-case print. We find a modest benefit of visual form cueing in the written production of upper-case letters, despite an inability to describe or report visual features of letters in any case or font. This case increases our understanding of the allographic level of letter-shape representation in written language production. It provides strong support for previous reports indicating the neural independence of different types of case and font-specific letter-shape information; it provides evidence that letter-shape production does not require explicit access to information about the visual attributes of letter shapes and, finally, it reveals the possibility of interaction between processes involved in letter-shape production and perception.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Direct copy of the words “zaino (rucksack), sole (sun), strada (road), monte (mountain), opera (opera)” and non-words “ nobbia”.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Examples of delayed copy of upper print letters E, V, O, L, B, A, G, T, Z, S, P and R. E, O, L, B were correctly written in upper print; T, S, P were written in upper cursive; G was written as a C and R was written as a P; V, A, Z were ill-formed.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Delayed copy of words “mappa (map), zebra (zebra), Italia (Italy), mare (sea)” and non-words “permo, nobbia”.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Written word completion.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Written letter completion of A, E, M, H, E, M, L and H.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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