Apraxic agraphia due to thalamic infarction

The authors report a patient of pure apraxic agraphia with normal praxis du e to left thalamic infarction. O-15-gas-PET showed reduced oxygen metabolis m in the left thalamus and the left dorsolateral premotor area, while MRI a nd C-11-fulumazenil-PET showed no remarkable lesions in the frontal cortex. The patient's word imaging remained normal. The authors hypothesize that t halamic destruction causes pure apraxic agraphia by exerting a remote effec t on left dorsolateral premotor area and blocking somewhere between graphem ic area and motor programming.