Jargonagraphia in Kanji and Kana in a Japanese crossed Wernicke's aphasic.

A right-handed Japanese crossed Wernicke's aphasic showed complete neologistic jargonagraphia in kanji and kana with anosognosia of his writing deficits. Prominent jargonagraphia in kanji is quite rare and has not been previously described in the literature. Marked dissociation between speaking and writing during the course suggested that his jargonagraphia might be unique to crossed aphasia. His condition was interpreted for the main part by Yokoyama, Okubo, Doseki, and Yamadori's hypothesis (1981) that free-running on of motor engrams of characters stored in the left hemisphere caused jargonagraphia in crossed aphasia. This case of jargonagraphia in kanji suggests that this hypothesis should be supplemented by the following points: (1) in kanji, not necessarily a character as a whole, but radicals or parts of radicals, function as motor units, which may be released to produce jargonagraphia in kanji; (2) free-running on of visual images as well as of kinesthetic images should be considered especially in written jargon in kanji.