Language-specific dysgraphia in Korean patients with right brain stroke: influence of unilateral spatial neglect

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between Korean language-specific dysgraphia and unilateral spatial neglect in 31 right brain stroke patients. All patients were tested for writing errors in spontaneous writing, dictation, and copying tests. The dysgraphia was classified into visuospatial omission, visuospatial destruction, syllabic tilting, stroke omission, stroke addition, and stroke tilting. Twenty-three (77.4%) of the 31 patients made dysgraphia and 18 (58.1%) demonstrated unilateral spatial neglect. The visuospatial omission was the most common dysgraphia followed by stroke addition and omission errors. The highest number of errors was made in the copying and the least was in the spontaneous writing test. Patients with unilateral spatial neglect made a significantly higher number of dysgraphia in the copying test than those without. We identified specific dysgraphia features such as a right side space omission and a vertical stroke addition in Korean right brain stroke patients. In conclusion, unilateral spatial neglect influences copy writing system of Korean language in patients with right brain stroke.