Semantic access dyslexia.

An analytical investigation of the residual reading capacities of a single patient with dyslexia without dysgraphia is reported. Both his ability to name and to comprehend letters and words were severely impaired. The major finding of this investigation was AR's striking capacity for categorizing words he could not read. In addition there was evidence of semantic priming effects. Thus AR was frequently able to achieve partial comprehension of words he could not read. The orthodox interpretation of the dyslexia without dysgraphia in terms of a disconnection syndrome is shown to be inappropriate, at least for the present case, where the deficit appears to be within the semantic domain; it is argued that this type of dyslexia is due to an impairment in accessing semantic information.