Acquired mirror writing and reading: evidence for reflected graphemic representations

Gottfried, Jay A.; Sancar, Feyza; Chatterjee, Anjan

doi:10.1016/s0028-3932(02)00130-6

Cited by 30 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…We propose that the diagnosis of MW should be limited to the reversal of whole words, multi-digit numbers and full sentences, which reveal a disorder in coding the correct direction of writing rather than an inability to accomplish the correct spatial orientation of single letters. frequency of MW in an unselected series of hemiplegic patients varies between 2.4% [8] to 13% [22]. A higher frequency (24%) is reported when only patients with left hemisphere lesions were considered [23], however, none of the available studies on the frequency of mirror writing specifies the selection criteria of the sample [8,17,21,22].…”

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confidence: 99%

Mirror writing and reversing single letters in stroke patients and normal elderly

et al. 2007

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Mirror writing (MW) refers to the production of individual letters or whole word strings in reversed direction. When held to a mirror, these letters or words can be read normally. We observed MW in a considerable number of stroke patients. Of the 86 patients screened 15 (17.5%) showed at least one instance of mirror writing in any of the tasks. Both right (14% of 36 patients) and left (20% of 50 patients) hemisphere damaged patients produced reversed letters only when writing with their left hand, respectively the contralesional and ipsilesional hand. The dissociated performance between the two hands in brain damaged patients is relevant to the interpretation of MW because, unlike all other peripheral dysgraphias, MW affects the non-dominant hand only. Importantly, healthy elderly also showed MW solely when writing with their left hand (6.9% of 86 participants). MW in controls was less frequent but qualitatively similar to that observed in brain damaged patients. This finding is consistent with the motor interpretation of MW that assumes an inability to transform the stored letter forming programmes for left hand writing. However, several cases have been reported in the literature of a more pervasive form of MW whereby patients mirror reverse entire words or sentences. This pattern has been observed in children learning to write but it has never been observed in healthy adult volunteers. We propose that the diagnosis of MW should be limited to the reversal of whole words, multi-digit numbers and full sentences, which reveal a disorder in coding the correct direction of writing rather than an inability to accomplish the correct spatial orientation of single letters.

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confidence: 99%

Mirror writing and reversing single letters in stroke patients and normal elderly

et al. 2007

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“…Humans are no exceptions (e.g., Davidoff and Warrington 2001). Humans also show mirror reversal in object manipulation (Feinberg and Jones 1985;Wade and Hart 1991) and in reading and writing (Gates and Bennett 1933;Hildreth 1934). Mirror writing (MW) is the topic of this paper.…”

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confidence: 98%

Mirror writing in pre-school children: a pilot study

Cubelli

Sala

2008

Cogn Process

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Mirror writing refers to the production of individual letters, whole words or sentences in reverse direction. Unintentional mirror writing has been observed in young children learning to write and interpreted as the manifestation of different cognitive impairments. We report on mirror writing instances in a sample of 108 pre-school children. Results showed MW to be age-related but independent from handedness and left-right discrimination abilities. We propose an account of mirror writing as reflecting dissociation between acquired motor programmes for letter shape composition and unspecified spatial direction of hand movements. Before learning to write, the child's directional cognitive system is assumed to be dichotomous, thus inducing the production of randomly oriented asymmetrical letters.

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“…Usually, the line of mirror writing flows from right to left, but sometimes -as in Chinese script -normal leftward ordering of the vertically written lines and mixtures of orientations of letters, words and lines of writing are found (Chia & Kinsbourne, 1987). Other unusual reports include mirror writing in concordant identical twins and in three generations of people (Mathewson, 2004), as well as familial, upside-down mirror writing (Brainin & Donner, 1981), inverted mirror writing (Critchley, 1928), and acquired mirror writing with both hands (Gottfried, Sancar, & Chatterjee, 2003).…”

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confidence: 97%

“…A recent review of the literature on the prevalence of mirror writing (Brainin & Donner, 1981;Chia & Kinsbourne, 1987;Cohen, 1995;Critchley, 1928;Gottfried et al, 2003;Mathewson, 2004;Reinke, 1993;Schott, 1979;Takatsu, 1990) and the anecdotal report that a surprisingly high number of Australians (1 in 6,500) engage in mirror writing suggest that further epidemiological studies are warranted (Mathewson, 2004).…”

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confidence: 99%

Mirror writing resulting from an egocentric representation disorder: A case report

et al. 2011

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Buchwald (1878 ) used the term 'mirror writing' to indicate writing in the reverse direction to what is normal in a particular language and in which the individual letters are also reversed. Cases of healthy individuals (i.e., Leonardo da Vinci and Lewis Carroll) as well as brain-damaged patients have been described in the literature. Here, we report the case of PM, a 70-year-old right-handed woman who showed right hemiplegia and mirror writing following a stroke in the left lenticular nucleus and internal capsulae. PM underwent a complete neuropsychological evaluation, which included copying, dictation and spontaneous writing in both hemispaces with both hands. She was also tested for topographical disorientation, visuo-spatial disorders and body schema deficits. We observed isolated mirror writing only when PM wrote with the left hand, without differences between hemispaces. She also showed a left-right disorientation, a body topological map disorder and an egocentric misrepresentation. The presence of mirror writing not confined to one hemispace and the co-presence of executive function disorders, as well as anosognosia, suggests damage to our patient's sub-cortical frontal network. As no previous interpretation fits with PM's symptoms, we hypothesize that mirror writing resulted from damage to her egocentric frame of reference. This hypothesis allows us to interpret the patient's array of disorders, including mirror writing, body topological map disorder, left-right confusion and egocentric representation.

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Acquired mirror writing and reading: evidence for reflected graphemic representations

Cited by 30 publications

References 37 publications

Mirror writing and reversing single letters in stroke patients and normal elderly

Mirror writing and reversing single letters in stroke patients and normal elderly

Mirror writing in pre-school children: a pilot study

Mirror writing resulting from an egocentric representation disorder: A case report

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