Exam 3 : Acquired Dyslexias

Question 1

VWFA: what is it? where is it? what are its features and how is it activated in literate and illiterate individuals?

Answer 1

The Visual Word Form Area, located in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex, is the gateway to the reading systems. Activated by strings of letters and words, the left side of the VWFA is for words, while the right side is for faces.

People who are illiterate, both sides are for faces, and in people who are literate - they are faster at identifying words than faces.

Question 2

Pure Alexia

Answer 2

People with pure alexia cannot read at all. They have had damage in their VWFA which is seen as a disconnection from the occipital lobe and the areas that have to do with letters and words. People who have pure alexia are able to talk and have tactile/word recognition like P R I N T, they can also spell.

Question 3

Phonological Dyslexia

Answer 3

cannot read non-words, known words they are perfect at

Question 4

Surface Dyslexia

Answer 4

cannot read frequent/irregular words like dog or pint, their comprehension is based on their pronunciation - bear goes to beer

Question 5

Deep Dyslexia

Answer 5

Cannot read non-words and make semantic substitutions, they also make visual errors in reading.