Phonological agraphia: writing by the lexical-semantic route.
Two writing routes (phonological and lexical) have been postulated. We studied four patients who had disruption of the phonological route (ie, inability to write pronounceable nonwords) but with a preserved lexical route. Results showed that the phonological route has two components: segmentation and phoneme-grapheme conversion. Disruption of either function may induce phonological agraphia. The preserved lexical route uses a whole-word mechanism and is strongly affected by semantic factors, such as imageability, emotionality, and grammatic class. Results of CT suggest that a portion of the supramarginal gyrus is the most likely anatomic substrate of phonological agraphia.
D000328:Adult; D000381:Agraphia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001037:Aphasia / Q000503:physiopathology; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D004411:Dyslexia, Acquired / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010699:Phonation; D011859:Radiography; D012660:Semantics