Multiple component agraphia in a patient with atypical cerebral dominance: an error analysis.
A 52-year-old man with atypical cerebral dominance (left-handed for writing but mixed handedness for other tasks) suffered an extensive right hemisphere stroke, resulting in a combination of deficits that has not been previously reported. There were profound visual constructive and visual perceptual disturbances and a spatial agraphia, which were consistent with a nondominant hemisphere lesion. There was also a severe apraxic agraphia, which is typically associated with a dominant hemisphere lesion, but no other signs of dominant hemisphere dysfunction such as linguistic disturbance or limb-motor apraxia were present. This case serves to highlight the functional and anatomical relationship between handwriting and other forms of praxis; the various sources of error in letter formation; the need to be specific in labeling and describing agraphias ; and the role of a detailed analysis of writing errors in delineating the neuropsychological processes involved in handwriting.
D000381:Agraphia / Q000523:psychology*; D001072:Apraxias / Q000523:psychology; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000523:psychology; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006236:Handwriting; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011581:Psychological Tests