[Agraphia of Gerstmann syndrome--attempt at characterization]

A review is given of well documented cases of Gerstmann's syndrome covering one century from 1888 to 1991 complemented by two own observations, Convergencies as well as divergencies are pointed out. It is concluded, that although aphasia may be an accompanying condition, aphasic agraphia as described in linguistic terms is not a sufficient explanation of agraphia in Gerstmann's syndrome which implies spatial-graphic particularities like disturbances of symmetry, reduplications of strokes, defective line orientation, choice of a different letter type and occurrence of nonsense characters not contained in the alphabet. Literal paragraphs may appear as well, while semantic errors are virtually lacking. These features are known to occur in apractic or constructive agraphia whose localisation is usually in the left angular/subangular region coincident with a disconnection from homotopic right hemisphere areas by damage of commissural fibres. Lesions of these non-dominant areas may lead to spatial agraphia.