SEVEN QUESTIONS ABOUT PURE ALEXIA (LETTER-BY-LETTER READING).

I discuss ways in which the subsequent papers offer answers to some basic questions about pure alexia (letter-by-letter reading). Is the disorder a homogeneous one? Is the relevant impairment specific to the reading system or is it a more general visual impairment? What is the nature and the locus of the letter-by-letter reader's impairment, within some functional model of reading? What causes the patients to read letter-by-letter? What contribution does the right hemisphere make? Why is letter-by-letter reading accuracy affected by imageability (concreteness)? Why do some letter-by-letter readers show covert processing and others not?