Department of Neurology, Showa University School of Medicine, 1-5-8 Hatanodai, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
Eur Neurol. 2011;65(3):144-9. doi: 10.1159/000324336. Epub 2011 Mar 3.
Although Charcot described amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in the 1870s, he did not focus on language. And language problems in ALS with or without dementia were long ignored. A recent report by Caselli et al. [Ann Neurol 1993;33:200-207] is accurately regarded as a major breakthrough in studies of language in ALS. However, we discovered a Japanese account written by Watanabe in 1893 describing paragraphia of an aphasic nature, and this is interesting for two reasons. (1) Watanabe's paper is, we believe, the first report of an aphasia associated with motor neuron disease, and predates other reports by 100 years. (2) It sheds light on the dissociated involvement of the two Japanese writing systems: kana (Japanese simple phonograms) and kanji (Japanese morphograms with complex character derived from Chinese characters). In the aphasia reported by Watanabe, the phonograms are more affected than the morphograms. Thus, Watanabe's clinical observation may predict current theories of the way in which these two writing systems involve different intrahemispheric pathways.
虽然夏科（Charcot）在 19 世纪 70 年代描述了肌萎缩侧索硬化症（ALS），但他并未关注语言问题。而且，有无痴呆的 ALS 患者的语言问题长期以来一直被忽视。最近，卡塞利等人的报告[Ann Neurol 1993;33:200-207]被准确地视为 ALS 语言研究方面的重大突破。但是，我们发现了 1893 年渡边（Watanabe）撰写的一份描述失语性质的段落性书写障碍的日语记录，这有两点有趣之处。（1）我们认为，渡边的论文是首例报道的与运动神经元疾病相关的失语症，比其他报告早了 100 年。（2）它揭示了两种日本书写系统的分离参与：假名（日本的简单音节）和汉字（源自汉字的复杂字形）。在渡边报告的失语症中，音节比字形受影响更大。因此，渡边的临床观察可能预示着当前关于这两种书写系统涉及不同大脑半球内通路的理论。
