A SELECTIVE DEFICIT FOR WRITING VOWELS IN ACQUIRED DYSGRAPHIA

BRAIN-DAMAGED patients with acquired writing disorders provide important information about the normal processes of spelling and writing 1,2. Current models indicate that to produce a letter string, its 'abstract' representation is computed and stored in a temporary orthographic buffer, from which it is converted to a verbal code (if the word is to be spelled aloud) or to a physical letter code (if the word is to be written). The stored graphemic representations specify the identity and order of the component letters 3 and their consonant/vowel status 4. Here I describe the spelling performance of two patients with a selective deficit in writing vowels. When writing words, the first patient omitted all vowels, leaving a blank space between consonants or consonant clusters, whereas the second produced errors that almost exclusively involved vowels. This pattern of performance supports the hypothesis that the consonant/vowel status of graphemes is differentially specified in the spelling process and may be selectively affected after brain damage.