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Abstract
Alexia refers to a reading disorder caused by some form of acquired brain pathology, most commonly a stroke or tumor, in a previously literate subject. In neuropsychology, a distinction is made between central alexia (commonly seen in aphasia) and peripheral alexia (a perceptual or attentional deficit). The prototypical peripheral alexia is alexia without agraphia (pure alexia), where patients can write but are impaired in reading words and letters. Pure alexia is associated with damage to the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex (vOT) or its connections. Hemianopic alexia is associated with less extensive occipital damage and is caused by a visual field defect, which creates problems reading longer words and passages of text. Reading impairment can also arise due to attentional deficits, most commonly following right hemisphere or bilateral lesions. Studying patients with alexia, along with functional imaging studies of normal readers, has improved our understanding of the neurobiological processes involved in reading. A key question is whether an area in the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex is specialized for or selectively involved in word processing, or whether reading relies on tuning of more general purpose perceptual areas. Reading deficits may also be observed in dementia and traumatic brain injury, but often with less consistent deficit patterns than in patients with focal lesions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Randi Starrfelt
- Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
| | - Zoe Woodhead
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
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Bormann T, Stopsack KH, Mader I, Weiller C, Rijntjes M. A formal analysis of alexia in persistent aura and a comparison to acquired pure alexia. Neurocase 2017; 23:60-64. [PMID: 28376693 DOI: 10.1080/13554794.2017.1291840] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
A patient is reported with reversible pure alexia in the context of migraine with aura. Following previous, anecdotal reports, the present study is the first to formally assess word reading, writing, and other linguistic and visual processing and to compare these to a patient with stroke-related pure alexia. The reading impairment, suggestive of letter-by-letter reading, was observed across 7 days but had remitted at a 3-month follow-up. The deficit also affected recognition of letters, suggesting a functional impairment at the level of letter recognition, not just word reading. It went along with reversible abnormalities in diffusion-weighted and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery imaging in areas known to be involved in word reading.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tobias Bormann
- a Klinik für Neurologie, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Medizinische Fakultät , Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg , Freiburg , Germany
| | - Konrad H Stopsack
- a Klinik für Neurologie, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Medizinische Fakultät , Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg , Freiburg , Germany
| | - Irina Mader
- b Klinik für Neuroradiologie, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Medizinische Fakultät , Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg , Freiburg , Germany.,c Freiburg Brain Imaging, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Medizinische Fakultät , Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg , Freiburg , Germany
| | - Cornelius Weiller
- a Klinik für Neurologie, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Medizinische Fakultät , Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg , Freiburg , Germany.,c Freiburg Brain Imaging, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Medizinische Fakultät , Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg , Freiburg , Germany.,d "BrainLinks-BrainTools" Excellenzcluster , Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg , Freiburg , Germany
| | - Michel Rijntjes
- a Klinik für Neurologie, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Medizinische Fakultät , Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg , Freiburg , Germany.,c Freiburg Brain Imaging, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Medizinische Fakultät , Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg , Freiburg , Germany
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Bormann T, Wolfer SA, Hachmann W, Lagrèze WA, Konieczny L. An eye movement study on the role of the visual field defect in pure alexia. PLoS One 2014; 9:e100898. [PMID: 24999811 PMCID: PMC4085070 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0100898] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2013] [Accepted: 06/01/2014] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Pure alexia is a severe impairment of word reading which is usually accompanied by a right-sided visual field defect. Patients with pure alexia exhibit better preserved writing and a considerable word length effect, claimed to result from a serial letter processing strategy. Two experiments compared the eye movements of four patients with pure alexia to controls with simulated visual field defects (sVFD) when reading single words. Besides differences in response times and differential effects of word length on word reading in both groups, fixation durations and the occurrence of a serial, letter-by-letter fixation strategy were investigated. The analyses revealed quantitative and qualitative differences between pure alexic patients and unimpaired individuals reading with sVFD. The patients with pure alexia read words slower and exhibited more fixations. The serial, letter-by-letter fixation strategy was observed only in the patients but not in the controls with sVFD. It is argued that the VFD does not cause pure alexic reading.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tobias Bormann
- Neurologische Universitätsklinik Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Sascha A. Wolfer
- Kognitionswissenschaft, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
- Institut für Deutsche Sprache (IDS), Mannheim, Germany
| | - Wibke Hachmann
- Università degli Studi di Trento, Scienze della Cognizione e della Formazione, Trento, Italy
| | | | - Lars Konieczny
- Kognitionswissenschaft, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
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