Phonological and semantic information in word and nonword reading in a deep dyslexic patient

Deep dyslexia is diagnosed when brain-injured, previously literate adults m ake reading errors that include hallmark semantic paralexias (e.g., reading HEART as BLOOD) and ale also impaired at leading nonwords (e.g., FRIP). Th e diversity of these symptoms have led most researchers to conclude that th ere, are multiple sources of impairment in this syndrome and that one of th e most critical is a failure to process phonological informationat a sublex ical level. The patient (SD) reported in this study fits the deep dyslexia profile to the extent that she makes several semantically related reading e rrors. She also shows the classic frequency and image ability effects of th e syndrome. However, as we report, she does read some nonwords correctly an d she shows a strong advantage for naming when phonemic cues are pre sented . We discuss the performance of SD, on these preliminary tasks, in terms of a phonological selection impairment, (C) 2000 Academic Press.