SPATIAL ALEXIA

Twenty-one patients with right hemisphere damage were studied (11 men, 10 women; average age = 41.33; range = 19-65). Patients were divided in two groups: pre-Rolandic (six patients) and retro-Rolandic (15 patients) right hemisphere damage. A special reading test was given to each patient. The observed errors included: literal errors (substitutions, additions, and omissions of letters), substitutions of syllables and pseudowords for meaningful words, left hemispatial neglect, confabulation, splitting of words, verbal errors (substitutions, additions, and omission of words), grouping of letters belonging to two different words, misuse of punctuation marks, and errors in following lines. It was proposed that spatial alexia is characterized by: (1) some difficulties in the recognition of the spatial orientation in letters; (2) left hemispatial neglect; (3) tendency to ''complete'' the sense of words and sentences; (4) inability to follow lines when reading texts, and sequentially explore the spatial distribution of the written material; and (5) grouping and fragmentation of words, most likely as a consequence of the inability to interpret the relative value of spaces between letters correctly.