Residual reading capability in a patient with alexia without agraphia

A case of pure alexia due to an ischemic lesion of the occipital temporal region is described. Written words could be matched but not read. Immediate memory span for graphemes was defective. The reading defect probably depends on the inability to modify the written word “globally”; the phonological process was intact, but the memory disturbance impeded reading. The dissociation is explained by the preservation of word forms, which are linked to the semantic stage. Nonwritten stimuli trigger a “meaning” which evokes the word form and so the written word is recognized even though it cannot be read.