The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

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ArticleTitle	Comparison between dictation and copy in Japanese apraxic agraphia
Language	J
AuthorList	Akane Ide, Yoshitaka Ohigashi
Affiliation	Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University
Publication	Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 22 (2), 119-129, 2006
Received	Jan 14, 2003
Accepted	Jul 15, 2005
Abstract	Some researchers claim apraxic agraphia originates from impairments of the motor components of writing. According to them, patients with apraxic agraphia in alphabetic language can copy letters better than spontaneous writing or dictation, because they can copy letters just like drawing pictures with the help of remaining visuospatial ability. But there are some cases that show visuospatial disorders, which can cause difficulty in copying. Possibly, their way of copying letters might be influenced by the visuospatial disorders. So we made detailed comparison of writing to dictation and copying of the same target letters in a case of apraxic agraphia with visuospatial disorders. The case YM, a 54-year-old man, developed slowly progressive parietal lobe syndrome including apraxic agraphia. He wrote poorly formed letters without aphasic paragrahia. He also had difficulty in copying letters. Dictation and copying are performed in both Kanji (Chinese characters) and Hiragana (syllabary characters). The performance and error patterns were compared in each character category. As YM made no linguistic error, we focused attention on his morphologic errors, and classified them. The rate of correct responses was significantly higher in copying than in dictation when written in Kanji, but not in Hiragana. Error pattern of copying was significantly different from that of dictation in both Kanji and Hiragana. Constructional errors (inaccurate alignment of the letter parts) were more observed in copying than in dictation. These results suggest that YM copied letters in a different way from dictation. The letters to be copied might have helped YM as visual cue, but his visuospatial disorder prevented him from copying letters normally. Increased constructional errors in copying would support the notion that there is the visuospatial pathway for writing like picture drawing. The patients with apraxic agraphia might use primarily this pathway for copying letters.
Keywords	apraxic agraphia, visuo-spatial impairment, motor components of writing, parietal lobe