Writing and rewriting numerals: a dissociation within the transcoding processes

In the present study we report the case of A.B., a patient with a specific, though not isolated, deficit in transcoding verbal to Arabic numerals. Despite perfect production of Arabic numerals in a writing to dictation task, she frequently produced syntactic errors when the input was in written verbal form (e.g., duecentotrenta [two hundred and thirty] --> 20030). In absence of problems in the verbal comprehension system, A.B.'s performance is difficult to accommodate within current models of number processing. In the attempt to interpret the present findings, we suggest that different numerical codes, i.e, spoken and written verbal numerals, activate with different efficiency the transcoding algorithm.