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S Z Rapcsak

Publications and source records attributed to S Z Rapcsak.

40 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Phonological alexia with optic and tactile anomia: a neuropsychological and anatomical study.

We describe a patient with phonological alexia caused by a small hemorrhage in the posterior-inferior portion of the left temporal lobe. The lesion induced a highly selective impairment of phonological reading without concomitant oral language deficits other than anomia for objects presented in the visual and tactile modalities. We propose that an intact dorsal pathway from inferior visual association areas to Wernicke's area via the angular gyrus could mediate reading by the lexical route, while damage to a ventral pathway disrupted the patient's ability to read nonwords. We suggest further that although visually and tactually presented objects could be recognized and both verbally and nonverbally identified, they could not be named because of a disconnection from the area of word representations.

Adult↗

Apraxia in a patient with atypical cerebral dominance.

Liepmann postulated that the left hemisphere of right-handed persons contains the "movement formulas" that control purposeful skilled movements of the limbs on both sides of the body. Accordingly, in right-handers apraxia should follow damage to the left hemisphere, whereas right hemisphere damage should not lead to apraxia. Although this is generally true, we recently examined a right-handed man who after a right hemispheric stroke became aphasic and apraxic with his nonparalyzed right hand. Our observations suggest that the right hemisphere of this right-handed man made a critical contribution to the planning and execution of skilled movements. This case provides evidence that right-handers should not be considered a homogeneous group in terms of cerebral motor dominance and that contrary to Liepmann's postulate, hemispheric dominance for the control of skilled movements does not entirely determine handedness.

Apraxias↗

Hemispace-visual field interactions in visual extinction.

Visual extinction was studied in a patient with neglect from a right hemispheric lesion. Extinction occurred during double simultaneous stimulation within the same visual hemi-field (VHF). This finding suggests that interhemispheric rivalry is not a critical factor. During double simultaneous stimulation within the same VHF as well as with stimuli in different VHFs, the severity of extinction was determined by both the retinotopic and the hemi-spatial position of the extinguished stimulus. The location of the other stimulus, however, did not seem relevant. It is proposed that damage to a corticolimbic-reticular system reduces attentional capacity and that extinction during double simultaneous stimulation in the visual modality reflects an inability to distribute the limited attentional resources equally to two different locations. The severity of extinction is a measure of an unequal distribution of attention along a gradient within visual space.

Attention↗