ABSTRACT
Current Accounts of Pure Alexia Dejerine's (1892) explanation of pure alexia, though still widely referenced in neurology textbooks, does not explain the letter-by-Ietter reading that is so characteristic of the syndrome and thus has not satisfied modem experimental psychologists. We may divide the contemporary accounts of the pure alexia syndrome into three general categories. First are those that assume a deficit affecting the low-level perceptual processes responsible for the construction of a structural description of the input (Rapp & Caramazza, 1991). Others interpret the syndrome in terms of a deficit at the stage of pattern identification (Farah & Wallace, 1991; Friedman & Alexander, 1984; Kinsboume & Warrington, 1962, 1963; Levine & Calvanio, 1978; Reuter-Lorenz & Brunn, 1990). Finally, another viewpoint maintains that a word-specific processing deficit is responsibie for the reading difficulties in pure alexia (Patterson & Kay, 1982; Shallice & Saffran, 1986; Warrington & Shallice, 1980). We summarize each of these accounts.
