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Oliver
Sacks, A Neurologist's Notebook, "A Man of Letters," The
New Yorker, June 28, 2010, p. 22
A
NEUROLOGIST'S NOTEBOOK
An abstrct about a man suffering from alexia, an inability to
recognize written language.
In
January of 2002, Canadian novelist Howard Engel sent the writer a
letter about his experience with alexia sine agraphia, a form of
visual agnosia which results in an inability to recognize written
language. On the morning of July 31, 2001, Engel awoke and
discovered that he could not read the newspaper. His room looked
normal, and he could still read his clock, but his books were all
unintelligible, all full of the same "Oriental"-looking
script. At the hospital, it was determined that he had had a
stroke which had affected a limited area of the visual parts of
the brain, on the left side. He spent the next week in the
neurology ward at Toronto's Mount Sina Hospital. He also had
difficulties recognizing colors, faces, and everyday objects, yet
he was surprised to find that he could still write.
To read more . . .
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