Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Visual Agnosia01:12

Visual Agnosia

Visual agnosia is a condition characterized by the inability to recognize visually presented objects despite having normal vision. For instance, a person with visual agnosia can describe the shape and color of an object but cannot identify or name it. This impairment does not affect their visual field, acuity, color vision, brightness discrimination, language, or memory. An example of this condition in a social setting is someone at a dinner party asking for "that silver thing with a round end"...
Prosopagnosia01:24

Prosopagnosia

Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, is the inability to recognize faces. In severe cases, individuals with prosopagnosia may not recognize close family members, including parents and spouses, by their faces. For instance, someone with prosopagnosia might walk past their child in a crowd, only realizing their mistake upon noticing their child's distinctive backpack or favorite jacket. Prosopagnosia specifically impairs facial recognition, while the recognition of other objects or...
Visual System01:26

Visual System

Light enters the eye through the cornea, a transparent, dome-shaped surface covering the surface of the eyeball that helps to direct and focus incoming light. This light is then channeled toward the pupil, an adjustable opening whose size is controlled by the iris. The iris, a pigmented muscle, regulates the amount of light entering the eye by contracting or dilating the pupil, thereby ensuring optimal light levels for clear vision.
Once through the pupil, the light passes through the lens, a...
Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language01:10

Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language

Language is a system of communication that allows the expression of thoughts, ideas, and feelings. The brain processes language in both hemispheres.
Language formation and comprehension take place in the dominant hemisphere. The dominant hemisphere is responsible for understanding the meaning of spoken, written, or sign language, as well as the ability to communicate. For most people, the left hemisphere is the dominant one. The right hemisphere, then, gives tone and emotional context to the...
Perceptual Constancy01:12

Perceptual Constancy

Perceptual constancy is the ability to recognize that objects remain consistent and unchanged even when their appearance varies due to changes in sensory input. There are four main types of perceptual constancy: size constancy, shape constancy, color constancy, and brightness constancy.
Size constancy is the recognition that an object remains the same size, even when its image on the retina changes. For instance, a bus is perceived to be large enough to carry people, even if it looks tiny from...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Age Is Not the Limit-Functional Outcomes and Discharge Predictors in a Neurorehabilitation Cohort of Mixed Ages.

Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translation·2026
Same author

Reorganized Functional Networks Underlie Working Memory Deficits After Right-Hemispheric Stroke.

The European journal of neuroscience·2025
Same author

Functional Connectivity of the Dorsal and Ventral Attention Network and Its Role in Attentional Disengagement.

Brain and behavior·2025
Same author

Functional coupling of the lateral prefrontal cortex and the default mode network predicts performance in mental rotation.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)·2025
Same author

Reflexive and voluntary saccades as a proxy for bradykinesia and apathy in Parkinson's disease.

Journal of neurology·2025
Same author

Distinct Functional Connectivity Patterns of Brain Networks Involved in Motor Planning Underlie Verbal and Spatial Working Memory.

Brain and behavior·2025
Same journal

Shared and Culture-Specific Brain Networks for Emotional Facial Discrimination: Evidence from Predictive Modeling.

Neuropsychologia·2026
Same journal

Exploring the Experiences of Autistic and Non-Autistic Aphantasics: A Qualitative Study.

Neuropsychologia·2026
Same journal

Prevalence and modulation of rat off-track head scanning on linear tracks: possible implications for representational and dynamic properties of hippocampal place cells.

Neuropsychologia·2026
Same journal

Identifying networks within an fMRI multivariate searchlight analysis.

Neuropsychologia·2026
Same journal

Modulating sentence comprehension in people with aphasia through anodal tDCS: A double-blind randomized cross-over study.

Neuropsychologia·2026
Same journal

Deficient processing of regularity violations during visuospatial neglect: a visual mismatch negativity study.

Neuropsychologia·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 24, 2026

A Gaze-Contingent Display Framework for Perceptual Learning Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss
07:12

A Gaze-Contingent Display Framework for Perceptual Learning Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss

Published on: April 11, 2025

Preserved visual language identification despite severe alexia.

Marie Di Pietro1, Radek Ptak, Armin Schnider

  • 1Division of Neurorehabilitation, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland. marie.dipietro@hcuge.ch

Neuropsychologia
|March 10, 2012
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Individuals with severe letter-by-letter alexia can identify written language, suggesting sublexical processing of orthographic rules aids language identification even with impaired word recognition.

More Related Videos

Lexical Decision Task for Studying Written Word Recognition in Adults with and without Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment
06:48

Lexical Decision Task for Studying Written Word Recognition in Adults with and without Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment

Published on: June 25, 2019

Dynamic Visual Tests to Identify and Quantify Visual Damage and Repair Following Demyelination in Optic Neuritis Patients
12:23

Dynamic Visual Tests to Identify and Quantify Visual Damage and Repair Following Demyelination in Optic Neuritis Patients

Published on: April 14, 2014

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 24, 2026

A Gaze-Contingent Display Framework for Perceptual Learning Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss
07:12

A Gaze-Contingent Display Framework for Perceptual Learning Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss

Published on: April 11, 2025

Lexical Decision Task for Studying Written Word Recognition in Adults with and without Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment
06:48

Lexical Decision Task for Studying Written Word Recognition in Adults with and without Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment

Published on: June 25, 2019

Dynamic Visual Tests to Identify and Quantify Visual Damage and Repair Following Demyelination in Optic Neuritis Patients
12:23

Dynamic Visual Tests to Identify and Quantify Visual Damage and Repair Following Demyelination in Optic Neuritis Patients

Published on: April 14, 2014

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Linguistics
  • Neurology

Background:

  • Patients with letter-by-letter alexia exhibit impaired overt word recognition but may retain access to lexical or semantic information.
  • This condition presents a unique opportunity to study the underlying mechanisms of reading and language processing.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the language identification capabilities of a multilingual patient with severe letter-by-letter alexia.
  • To explore the role of sublexical processing in written language identification in the context of alexia.

Main Methods:

  • A case study of a multilingual patient with severe letter-by-letter alexia.
  • Assessment of language identification (French/English) for words, sentences, and letter trigrams.
  • Lexical decision tasks involving illegal nonwords and legal pseudowords.
  • Analysis of performance based on orthographic structure and trigram frequency.

Main Results:

  • The patient rapidly identified the language of written French and English stimuli despite reading difficulties.
  • Lexical decision performance was influenced by orthographic structure, with easier determination for illegal nonwords than legal pseudowords.
  • Language identification of high-frequency letter trigrams (specific to English or French orthography) was significantly above chance.
  • Performance on low-frequency trigrams was at chance, similar to healthy controls.

Conclusions:

  • Written language identification in this patient relied on sublexical processing of language-specific orthographic rules.
  • These findings suggest that even with severe alexia, foundational orthographic processing can support language identification.
  • The study highlights the distinction between overt word recognition and implicit language processing mechanisms.