Background: Mirror writing (MW) refers to the production of individual letters, words or word strings in reversed direction [1]. When held to a mirror, these letters or words can be read normally. MW has mainly been observed in left hemisphere damaged patients writing with their left hand [2]. Two theories have been put forward to account for this phenomenon: a perceptual and a motor one. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of MW in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) compared to elderly volunteers Materials and Methods: 24 MCI and 21 healthy controls underwent a screening for MW. Results: No group difference emerged. MW of individual letters was observed in 3 MCI patients, but also in 6 controls. However, one individual (F.C.) with MCI showed overt and severe MW when writing with her left hand. She (50 y. old, 7 y. of education) was not an outlier in terms of severity of cognitive impairment or any other clinical or demographic variable. She and a matched control group of 6 women were further assessed with a comprehensive battery of tests aimed at investigating her MW. She was much slower than the controls but as accurate in all tests. In particular, she did not commit more errors in mirror reading and reading backwards text on paper, in executing directional actions (like screwing a lid), and in left-right discrimination, nor did she perform differently when asked to write under the surface of a table or in writing with transparent titles. However, under dictation (8 words) she reversed two individual letters and one whole word, whereas the performance of the controls was flawless. Conclusions: MW is a rare occurrence in MCI. The case of F.C. cannot be interpreted as resulting from a perceptual impairment, her performance is more easily accounted for by a deficit in the motor transformation of the engrams to be written with the non dominant hand or an impairment of the monitoring of directional errors. References [1] McIntosh R.D., Della Sala S. (2012). Mirror-writing. The Psychologist, 25: 742-6 [2] Balfour S, Borthwick S, Cubelli R, and Della Sala S. (2007). Mirror writing and reversing single letters in stroke patients and normal elderly. Journal of Neurology, 254: 436–441

Mirror writing in MCI patients and normal elderly

DE CARO, Maria;
2013-01-01

Abstract

Background: Mirror writing (MW) refers to the production of individual letters, words or word strings in reversed direction [1]. When held to a mirror, these letters or words can be read normally. MW has mainly been observed in left hemisphere damaged patients writing with their left hand [2]. Two theories have been put forward to account for this phenomenon: a perceptual and a motor one. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of MW in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) compared to elderly volunteers Materials and Methods: 24 MCI and 21 healthy controls underwent a screening for MW. Results: No group difference emerged. MW of individual letters was observed in 3 MCI patients, but also in 6 controls. However, one individual (F.C.) with MCI showed overt and severe MW when writing with her left hand. She (50 y. old, 7 y. of education) was not an outlier in terms of severity of cognitive impairment or any other clinical or demographic variable. She and a matched control group of 6 women were further assessed with a comprehensive battery of tests aimed at investigating her MW. She was much slower than the controls but as accurate in all tests. In particular, she did not commit more errors in mirror reading and reading backwards text on paper, in executing directional actions (like screwing a lid), and in left-right discrimination, nor did she perform differently when asked to write under the surface of a table or in writing with transparent titles. However, under dictation (8 words) she reversed two individual letters and one whole word, whereas the performance of the controls was flawless. Conclusions: MW is a rare occurrence in MCI. The case of F.C. cannot be interpreted as resulting from a perceptual impairment, her performance is more easily accounted for by a deficit in the motor transformation of the engrams to be written with the non dominant hand or an impairment of the monitoring of directional errors. References [1] McIntosh R.D., Della Sala S. (2012). Mirror-writing. The Psychologist, 25: 742-6 [2] Balfour S, Borthwick S, Cubelli R, and Della Sala S. (2007). Mirror writing and reversing single letters in stroke patients and normal elderly. Journal of Neurology, 254: 436–441
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11586/36050
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