Letter and number writing in agraphia: A single-case study

The gradual recovery of writing abilities of a patient whose processing of Arabic numerals and alphabetic script evolved differently over time is repo rted. Writing of multidigit numerals was achieved when writing of letters w as nil. However, despite an initial advantage for numbers, the final examin ation disclosed fluent and correct writing of letters and words together wi th specific syntactic difficulties in complex Arabic numerals. The differen tial improvement for Arabic and alphabetic stimuli is partly explained in t erms of different processing requirements rather than in terms of script-sp ecific mechanisms only. (C) 2001 Academic Press