Affiliations: Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA | Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation,
Baltimore, MD, USA | Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins
University, Baltimore, MD, USA
Note: [] Corresponding author: Argye E. Hillis, MD, MA, Professor of
Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital,
Meyer 6-113, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA. Tel.: +1 410
614 2381; Fax: +1 410 614 9807; E-mail: argye@jhmi.edu
Abstract: One of the main sources of information regarding the underlying
processes involved in both normal and impaired reading has been the study of
reading deficits that occur as a result of brain damage. However, patterns of
reading deficits found acutely after brain injury have been little explored.
The observed patterns of performance in chronic stroke patients might reflect
reorganization of the cognitive processes underlying reading or development of
compensatory strategies that are not normally used to read. Method: 112 acute
left hemisphere stroke patients were administered a task of oral reading of
words and pseudowords within 1–2 days of hospital admission; performance was
examined for error rate and type, and compared to that on tasks involving
visual lexical decision, visual/auditory comprehension, and naming. Results:
Several distinct patterns of performance were identified. Although similarities
were found between the patterns of reading performance observed acutely and the
classical acquired dyslexias generally identified more chronically, some
notable differences were observed. Of interest was the finding that no patient
produced any pure semantic errors in reading, despite finding such errors in
comprehension and naming.
