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A Systematic Scoping Review of Research on Alexia with Agraphia: Implications for Neural Models of Reading and Writing
Poster D105 in Poster Session D, Wednesday, October 25, 4:45 - 6:30 pm CEST, Espace Vieux-Port
Venugopal Balasuramanian1, Jayashree Balaraman2, Ava Amano3, Sarah Zimmer4, Kaitlyn Weber5, Christina Barnes6; 1Seton Hall University, 2Communication Neuroscience & Aphasia Research Lab
In 1890, Joseph-Jules Dejerine reported on the co-occurrence of alexia with agraphia (AWA), with relative sparing of other language functions, in a case with left angular gyrus (AG) lesion (Henderson,2010). Dejerine hypothesized that the AG lesion might have caused the loss of optical images of letters, and this loss was the underlying mechanism of AWA. He was aware that AWA could occur in association with aphasia syndromes. Such possibilities suggested that the interface between reading and writing rests on complex neural networks consisting of components that are spatially distributed. Unearthing numerous lesion sites associated with AWA, hopefully, will offer some clues regarding the neural underpinnings of reading-writing interface. For example, earlier neurological account of AWA in conduction aphasia, with arcuate fasciculus lesion, was based on the reasoning that both reading and writing impairments resulted from defective phonology (Goodglass, 1992). Cognitive neuropsychological (CN) models of reading and writing/spelling have, mostly, dealt with alexia and agraphia separately. When AWA occurred in a case, research studies tend to focus on either alexia or agraphia but not both (Nolan & Carmazza, 1982, 1983). Coltheart observed that some degree of writing impairments was always present in deep dyslexia (Coltheart, 1980). Hence, the frequency of occurrence of AWA must be higher than reported in the literature. Moreover, the neural bases of the interface between reading and writing have not been consistently focused on in recent research, with occasional exceptions (Baldo et al, 2018). The objectives of the current scoping review were as follows: to find the total number of published case reports of AWA in English language, to map the extent of lesion in each case, and to identify the neural- and cognitive-model oriented accounting of each case of AWA. The results of the current study will be discussed in the context of the contemporary neural models of reading and writing ( Method. A systematic scoping review of literature was undertaken. Only case reports with information, as mentioned earlier, were included. Results. An interim report of this review process is as follows: So far, 14 case reports in English reporting AWA were located (for example, Day et al, 1987., DeMarco et al, 2018., Kawahata et al, 1988., Kawamura et al, 1987., Kim et al, 2015., Kirshner & Webb, 1982). Lesion sites associated with AWA cases, for example, included these: 1) left angular gyrus (AG), 2) left supramarginal and AG, 3) Demyelination of the temporo-parietal region,4) Left temporo-parieto-occipital lesion, 5)right temporo-occipital hemorrhage, 6) lesion in the territory of the right superior cerebellar artery, 7) atrophy in the leftparieto-occipital regions, 8) left temporal lobe tumor, 9)Left middle and inferior occipital gyrus lesion…. Discussion We discuss how some of the the contemporary neural models of reading and writing (Baldo et al, 2018., Purcell, et al 2011., Planton et al, 2013., Roeltgen & Heilman, 1985., Roux et al, 2013., Scarone, et al, 2009) explain AWA cases reported in this study.
Topic Areas: History of the Neurobiology of Language, Disorders: Acquired