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[Vol.18 No.2 contents]
Japanese/English
Full Text of this Articlein Japanese PDF (164K) |
| ArticleTitle | A case of pure alexia who can read letters by observing other's writing action |
| Language | J |
| AuthorList | Shigeki Tanaka1)2), Masahiro Katayama2), Tomoko Ozawa3), Toshio Inui4) |
| Affiliation |
1) Faculty of Human Studies, Jin-ai University 2) Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Okatani Hospital 3) Section of Rehabilitation, Osaka City Hospital 4) Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University |
| Publication | Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 18 (2), 68-75, 2002 |
| Received | Jul 23, 2001 |
| Accepted | Nov 9, 2001 |
| Abstract | We reported a 65-years-old man who showed a pure alexia with typical lesions. He can read most of letters when he observes the writing actions of those letters, although he cannot read them at all under a normal reading condition. According to the results of his reading performances under various reading conditions, we conclude that visual information of letter writing actions might be translated into his own writing action, then it might activate the stored motor representation of letter writings. We propose that improved letter reading of our patient through observing other's writing action, might be one of the few neuropsychological evidences that Rizzolatti's mirror neuron functions in human brain. |
| Keywords | pure alexia, letter representation, action imitation, mirror neuron, supramarginal gyrus |
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