The possible existence of phonemic reading in the presence of Broca's aphasia: a case report.

This case study examined phonemic reading and reading comprehension in the presence of Broca's aphasia. The patient, T.B., a 16 yr old male, suffered an occlusion of the middle cerebral artery. Spontaneous speech was limited, naming difficulties were apparent, and comprehension was mildly impaired. Though the patient could read only a small number of words aloud, he was able to read silently for comprehension on a standardized instrument. Moreover, T.B. was able to match orally-presented pseudowords to their written analogs, a finding which suggests that phonemic processing for nonlexical material was to some degree intact. The results were contrasted to the reading patterns usually reported to be present in "frontal" alexia and deep dyslexia. The possible existence of a dissociation between phonemic processing in reading and speech behavior as well as its mechanism was discussed.