DISRUPTION OF RESIDUAL READING CAPACITY IN A PURE ALEXIC PATIENT AFTER A MIRROR-IMAGE RIGHT-HEMISPHERIC LESION

A 74-year-old woman became a letter-by-letter reader after the occurre nce of a left, occipito-temporal hematoma. Seven months later, she suf fered a second, mirror-image hematoma in the right hemisphere. After t his second lesion, her residual reading capacity deteriorated dramatic ally in terms of both accuracy and reading latencies for words and iso lated letters. Our findings support the hypothesis that the right hemi sphere contributes to the residual reading capacities of pure alexic p atients.