The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

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ArticleTitle	Pure alexia from the viewpoint of visual agnosia
Language	J
AuthorList	Mika Otsuki
Affiliation	School of Psychological Sciences, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido
Publication	Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 24 (2), 136-145, 2008
Received
Accepted
Abstract	We investigated 10 patients with alexia without agraphia (pure alexia), and concluded as followings. 1) Pure alexia is devided into two clinical types; one is Dejerine's type who cannot read a letter at all, another is letter-by-letter reader (LBLR). The common lesion of Dejerine's type is located in the left fusiform gyrus and parahippocampal gyrus; The common lesions of LBLR is in the left fusiform gyrus. 2) LBLR cannot read a word but improved their ability to read letters when they read letter and state the figures alternatively. 3) The patients was able to judge real letters/characters or not, and access vague meanings of the characters. 4) Writing ability of some patients were improved with their eyes closed than with eyes open. 5) The mechanism of pure alexia needs another viewpoint in addition to the disconnetction theory.; input information would modify the following function.
Keywords	pure alexia, Dejerine, letter-by-letter reading, visual agnosia