Loss of, or impaired, ability to write, despite normal functioning of the hand and arm muscles, caused by brain damage. Agraphia can result from damage to any of the various parts of the cerebrum concerned with writing and can therefore be of different types and degrees of severity. Such damage is most commonly due to head injury, stroke, or a brain tumour. Agraphia is often accompanied by alexia (loss of the ability to read) or may be part of an expressive aphasia (general disturbance in the expression of language). There is no specific treatment for agraphia, but some lost writing skills may return in time.
Loss of power to express ideas by writing. (See APHASIA.)
(dysgraphia) n. an acquired inability to write, although the strength and coordination of the hand remain normal. It is related to the disorders of language and it is caused by disease in the dominant *parietal lobe of the brain. See Gerstmann’s syndrome.
a group of symptoms that represent a partial disintegration of the patient’s recognition of his or her *body image. It consists of an inability to name the individual fingers, misidentification of the right and left sides of the body, and inability to write or make mathematical calculations (see acalculia; agraphia). It is caused by disease in the association area of the dominant (usually left) parietal lobe of the brain. [J. G. Gerstmann (1887–1969), Austrian neurologist]... gerstmann’s syndrome
Health Encyclopedia