The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

Full Text of this Article
in Japanese PDF (545K)

ArticleTitle	A case of pure kanji agraphia due to right medial frontal lobe lesion: Analyses of writing errors of kanji characters to be miswritten
Language	J
AuthorList	Mariko Sakai¹⁾²⁾, Norio Suzuki³⁾, Toshihiro Kashiwagi⁴⁾, Takashi Nishikawa²⁾
Affiliation	¹⁾Department of Rehabilitation, Saiseikai Ibaraki Hospital ²⁾Department of Rehabilitation, Osaka Prefecture University Graduate School of Comprehensive Rehabilitation ³⁾Department of Geriatric Neurology, Shiga Medical Center ⁴⁾Nakaya Hospital
Publication	Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 31 (3), 204-212, 2015
Received	Apr 7, 2014
Accepted	Mar 19, 2015
Abstract	We report a case of a 60-year-old male with pure kanji agraphia due to right medial frontal lobe infarction, and analyze his writing errors in addition to the features of his mistaken, kanji characters. Logistic regression analysis revealed that complexity of kanji character and number of orthographic strokes success or failure of execution. Most errors were orthographic errors followed by no response. Although the over all shape of each miswritten kanji were in proportion as if it were a real character all elements themselves were authentic, some elements were substituted for others. Since the patient presented no other linguistic deficits including sequential kana writing, phonemic sequence and semantic information were preserved. We concluded that his agraphia is based on disturbances in selection and arrangement of the structural elements of kanji characters. The right medial frontal lobe, especially the presupplementary motor area is considered crucial to temporal organization of movement. Furthermore sequential performance of multiple movements may also play a role in writing kanji characters.
Keywords	pure kanji agraphia, right medial frontal lobe, structural element of kanji character