SHS 485 STANDARD EXAMS ANSWERS AND
QUESTIONS SET A+
✔✔Alexia: According to the neurological model of acquired reading disorders, what are
the three types of disorders? Be able to compare and contrast the three types, and give
examples of each. - ✔✔Aphasia - 1. Aphasic alexia
(Reading deficits mirror language deficits)
No Aphasia-
2. Pure alexia
(A 'disconnection' syndrome)
3. Alexia with agraphia
(Relatively pure reading and writing deficits)
NUROLOGICAL MODEL
✔✔Alexia: What are the characteristics of pure alexia? What causes pure alexia? -
✔✔Writing abilities are normal but can't read what they write
Can often ID words spelt aloud
•Without agraphia or aphasia
•Disconnection of visual information from left hemisphere word-recognition system
•May be able to read letter-by-letter
•Not affected by orthographical regularity (the word can be sounded out) -- banana vs.
colonel
-Impaired ability to copy written words
-Acalculia• Hemianopsia (blind in one visual field)
-Normal speech comprehension & production
2 parts of the brain must be damaged:
, 1. Left primary visual cortex
2. Splenium- Part of the corpus callosum that connects the right visual cortex to the left
hemisphere
✔✔Alexia: According to the cognitive model of acquired reading disorders, what are the
three types of acquired dyslexia? Be able to compare and contrast the three types, and
give examples - ✔✔1. Surface (visual form) dyslexia
(Accesses meaning directly from a phonological representation... uses 'sounding out'
strategies. Anatomy unknown, associated with dementia)
2. Phonological (sound form) dyslexia
(Accesses meaning from a whole word or visual representation ... cannot read non-
words.Lesions in superior temporal lobe, angular gyrus & other nearby areas)
3.Deep dyslexia
(Associated with semantic errors, more difficulty with abstract words, function words
(prepositions, conjunctions, etc.) Large left hemisphere perisylvian lesions)
COGNITIVE MODEL
✔✔Alexia: How are these acquired dyslexias related to the three reading routes? -
✔✔Surface (visual form) dyslexia- used sound it out route
Phonological (sound form) dyslexia- Accesses meaning from a whole word or visual
representation ... cannot read non-words.
Deep dyslexia- Only the whole word to meaning route is intact.
✔✔Alexia: Compare and contrast spatial versus apraxic agraphia - ✔✔APRAXIC
AGRAPHIA- grapheme production difficulties, mostly caused by Alzheimer's Disease
SPATIAL-
• Due to damage in the right parietal lobe
• (stroke, tumor, etc.)
• Writing problems due to difficulties constructing the overall shapes of the letters
• One letter often "intrudes on another"
• Patients also usually have other visual-spatial deficits
✔✔Why is speech considered to be a complex motor act? - ✔✔• Topographic
organization: Somatotopy
• Disproportionate amount of primary motor cortex is dedicated to larynx, mouth,
tongue, lips, etc
QUESTIONS SET A+
✔✔Alexia: According to the neurological model of acquired reading disorders, what are
the three types of disorders? Be able to compare and contrast the three types, and give
examples of each. - ✔✔Aphasia - 1. Aphasic alexia
(Reading deficits mirror language deficits)
No Aphasia-
2. Pure alexia
(A 'disconnection' syndrome)
3. Alexia with agraphia
(Relatively pure reading and writing deficits)
NUROLOGICAL MODEL
✔✔Alexia: What are the characteristics of pure alexia? What causes pure alexia? -
✔✔Writing abilities are normal but can't read what they write
Can often ID words spelt aloud
•Without agraphia or aphasia
•Disconnection of visual information from left hemisphere word-recognition system
•May be able to read letter-by-letter
•Not affected by orthographical regularity (the word can be sounded out) -- banana vs.
colonel
-Impaired ability to copy written words
-Acalculia• Hemianopsia (blind in one visual field)
-Normal speech comprehension & production
2 parts of the brain must be damaged:
, 1. Left primary visual cortex
2. Splenium- Part of the corpus callosum that connects the right visual cortex to the left
hemisphere
✔✔Alexia: According to the cognitive model of acquired reading disorders, what are the
three types of acquired dyslexia? Be able to compare and contrast the three types, and
give examples - ✔✔1. Surface (visual form) dyslexia
(Accesses meaning directly from a phonological representation... uses 'sounding out'
strategies. Anatomy unknown, associated with dementia)
2. Phonological (sound form) dyslexia
(Accesses meaning from a whole word or visual representation ... cannot read non-
words.Lesions in superior temporal lobe, angular gyrus & other nearby areas)
3.Deep dyslexia
(Associated with semantic errors, more difficulty with abstract words, function words
(prepositions, conjunctions, etc.) Large left hemisphere perisylvian lesions)
COGNITIVE MODEL
✔✔Alexia: How are these acquired dyslexias related to the three reading routes? -
✔✔Surface (visual form) dyslexia- used sound it out route
Phonological (sound form) dyslexia- Accesses meaning from a whole word or visual
representation ... cannot read non-words.
Deep dyslexia- Only the whole word to meaning route is intact.
✔✔Alexia: Compare and contrast spatial versus apraxic agraphia - ✔✔APRAXIC
AGRAPHIA- grapheme production difficulties, mostly caused by Alzheimer's Disease
SPATIAL-
• Due to damage in the right parietal lobe
• (stroke, tumor, etc.)
• Writing problems due to difficulties constructing the overall shapes of the letters
• One letter often "intrudes on another"
• Patients also usually have other visual-spatial deficits
✔✔Why is speech considered to be a complex motor act? - ✔✔• Topographic
organization: Somatotopy
• Disproportionate amount of primary motor cortex is dedicated to larynx, mouth,
tongue, lips, etc
