IMPLICIT VS. LETTER-BY-LETTER READING IN PURE ALEXIA - A TALE OF 2 SYSTEMS

Recent studies of pure alexia present a contradictory picture. Despite evidence of impaired letter identification in letter-by-letter reader s, some patients are able to carry out lexical decision and other task s under conditions of rapid presentation, although they are seldom abl e to identify these stimuli explicitly. We review evidence for both fa cets of pure alexic performance and offer an account of this pattern i n terms of right- and left-hemisphere reading mechanisms. Specifically , we suggest that the right hemisphere supports performance in covert reading tasks, and that letter-by-letter reading is the product of the left hemisphere, operating on information transmitted from the right.