Incongruous oral and written naming Evidence for a subdivision of the syndrome of Wernicke's aphasia

Abstract A 28-year-old man developed the fluent paraphasic speech characteristic of Wernicke's aphasia after an episode of necrotizing temporal lobe encephalitis. He exhibited an unexpected, and heretofore unreported, superiority of written naming over oral naming. His reading comprehension was modestly superior to his auditory comprehension as well. These findings are at variance with the traditional view of Wernicke's aphasia as an undissociable syndrome of defective reading, writing, and speech. They suggest that an appropriately placed lesion can partially spare reading and writing while still producing fluent paraphasic speech.