Disturbances in conceptual space involving language and speech

We report on a patient, with a CT-verified low density lesion in the right parietal area, who exhibited not only deficits in left conceptual space, but also in reading, writing, and the production of speech. He presented with a left homonymous hemianopia, tactile inattention, and dysphasia that quickly resolved, leaving a left-sided inattention and less marked dysphasia. Several language tasks and language-based imagery tasks revealed poor language processing of the left portion of words which could be remedied if the patient was instructed to do things like spell the word backwards. The overall results were consistent with the idea that some aspects of language processing involve spatial mechanisms.