[Association of basal ganglia damage with Chinese agraphia]

To study the clinical features of Chinese agraphia caused by basal ganglia damage.

The Chinese speaking and writing abilities of 38 patients with basal ganglia damage were evaluated with aphasia battery and agraphia battery of Chinese, respectively, and the agraphia quotient (AgQ) and the scores for writing abilities calculated.

Of the 38 patients, 21 had left basal ganglia injury, which was responsible for aphasia in 18 and agraphia also in 18 patients. Another 14 patients had right basal ganglia injury and caused aphasia in 1 case and agraphia in 4. The rest 3 patients had injuries of the basal ganglia on both sides that resulted in aphasia in all and agraphia in 2 of them. Significant difference was noted in the incidence of agraphia between patients with left and those with right basal ganglia injuries, characterized by difficulty in building the Chinese characters, mistakes in writing the characters and disability of writing at the level of sentences and paragraphs of Chinese.

Basal ganglia damage may result in Chinese agraphia, due to, hypothetically, hypoperfusion, dysfunction of integration center, circuit damage and impaired function in extracting the graphical features of the Chinese characters from memory.