Allograph errors and impaired access to graphic motor codes in a case of unilateral agraphia of the dominant left hand

Abstract

This paper describes the case of a unilateral agraphic patient (GG) who makes letter substitutions only when writing letters and words with his dominant left hand. Accuracy is significantly greater when he is writing with his right hand and when he is asked to spell words orally. GG also makes case errors when writing letters, and will sometimes write words in mixed case. However, these allograph errors occur regardless of which hand he is using to write. In terms of cognitive models of peripheral dysgraphia (e.g., Ellis, 1988), it appears that he has an allograph level impairment that affects writing with both hands, and a separate problem in accessing graphic motor patterns that disrupts writing with the left hand only. In previous studies of left-handed patients with unilateral agraphia (Zesiger & Mayer, 1992; Zesiger, Pegna, & Rilliet, 1994), it has been suggested that allographic knowledge used for writing with both hands is stored exclusively in the left hemisphere, but that graphic motor patterns are represented separately in each hemisphere. The pattern of performance demonstrated by GG strongly supports such a conclusion.