DISSOCIATED PRESERVATION OF THE WRITTEN E XPRESSION IN A CASE OF APHASIA WITH RECURRENT UTTERANCES

In a female patient, aphasia with recurrent utterances resulted from a double lesion of the left hemisphere, located in the base of the thir d frontal gyrus and the upper temporal gyri. Predominant in the fluent oral expression was a repeated neologism of which the patient was una ware. The written expression, efficient for lexical entitles, was devo id of syntax and had the features of phonological agraphia. Both orall y and in written words comprehension was satisfactory but syntactic co mprehension was deficient The stereotyped verbal behaviour could be du e to dysfunction of the phonemic programmer. Rupture of the audi-phona tory loop, confirmed by degradation of the verbal working, memory, mad e this dysfunction worse and accounted for the anosognosia. The partic ipation of the right hemisphere and of the preserved left hemispheric structures in the persistence of various language activities are discu ssed.