Category and modality specific dissociations in word comprehension and concurrent phonological dyslexia

Abstract

A 62-yr-old aphasic patient was found to have a marked auditory comprehension deficit for body parts, colors, numbers and letters in the face of excellent comprehension for all other word categories and virtually intact reading comprehension for all word categories, including those affected by the auditory dissociation. A severe impairment in the graphophonemic route for reading was also discovered. The case is discussed in the context of category-specific dissociations after brain injury and the possible mechanism for failures of body part comprehension.