Acquired surface alexia in Spanish: A case report

Issue title: Acquired Dyslexia and Dysgraphia Across Scripts

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Ferreres, Aldo R.^; | Cuitiño, Macarena Martinez^{; ;} | Olmedo, Alicia^;

Affiliations: Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina | Hospital Eva Peron, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina | CONICET, Argentina

Note: [] Corresponding author: Aldo Ferreres, Hospital Eva Peron, Balbín 900, San Martín, Provincia de Buenos Aires (CP 1650), R. Argentina. Tel.: +54 11 47243000; interno 3141; Fax: +54 11 47243027; E-mail: aferrere@psi.uba.ar

Abstract: This paper reports a case study of acquired surface alexia in Spanish and discusses the most suitable tests to detect this syndrome in a writing system that is very regular for reading at the segmental and supra-segmental levels. Patient MM has surface alexia characterized by quantitatively good performance in reading words and pseudowords; accurate but slow and syllabic reading of words, nonwords and sentences; good performance in lexical decision tasks including words and nonwords; errors in lexical decision with pseudohomophones; and homophone confusions. This pattern of reading can be interpreted as a disorder in the lexical reading route and overdependence on the non-lexical route. We discuss nonlexical impairments and the interpretation of alexia and suggest tasks to identify surface alexia in a shallow orthography.

Keywords: Surface alexia, surface dyslexia, acquired dyslexia, dyslexia in Spanish, phonological reading, nonlexical reading

Journal: Behavioural Neurology, vol. 16, no. 2-3, pp. 71-84, 2005