Agraphia in Korean patients with early onset Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

Background: Agraphia in Korean patients may be different from agraphia in other patients who use alphabetical writing systems due to the "visuoconstructional script" characteristics of the Korean writing system, Hangul. Patients with early onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD) have a severe degree of hypometabolism in the parietal area, which is known to be involved in processing visuospatial function. Thus, we explored the diverse error patterns manifested in writing single syllables in Korean patients with EOAD.

Dysgraphia in Korean patients with Alzheimer's disease as a manifestation of bilateral hemispheric dysfunction

“…3c) are language-specific in that misposition can result in nonexistent and meaningless forms in Korean syllabic writing. This language-specific error has also been observed in Korean patients with stroke [13,14] and in patients with early onset AD [16]. This is attributed to the fact that each grapheme of Hangul has its own allocated space within a square syllabic form (Fig.…”

“…A previous study was conducted to explore the nature of writing dysfunction in Korean patients with early-onset AD [16]. The authors reported that these patients demonstrated linguistic and visuospatial errors in writing.…”

Cognitive Performance Deficits and Dysgraphia in Alzheimer’s Disease Patients

“…It has been suggested to be a more sensitive indication of language deficits in AD than anomia [22]. Yoon et al [40] have observed that a sample of 35 patients presenting early onset AD, with a severe degree of hypometabolism in the parietal brain region, exhibited not only linguistic errors but also visuoconstructional manifestations (derived from Hangul scripts) of dysgraphia that were associated with cognitive impairments in multiple domains. In a sample of 75 AD patients and 20 healthy controls that were set Hangul writing tasks, it was found that the writing performance of the AD group was significantly defective with a profusion of different types of errors emerging with disorder progression [41].…”

Cognitive Performance Deficits and Dysgraphia in Alzheimer’s Disease Patients

“…It has been suggested to be a more sensitive indication of language deficits in AD than anomia [37,38] have observed that a sample of 35 patients presenting early onset AD, with a severe degree of hypometabolism in the parietal brain region, exhibited not only linguistic errors but also visuoconstructional manifestations (derived from Hangul scripts) of dysgraphia that were associated with cognitive impairments in multiple domains. In a sample of 75 AD patients and 20 healthy controls that were set Hangul writing tasks, it was found that the writing performance of the AD group was significantly defective with a profusion of different types of errors emerging with disorder progression [39].…”