Dissociation between distal and proximal left limb agraphia and agraphesthesia in a patient with a callosal disconnection syndrome

A few neuropsychological studies have suggested the existence of bilateral hemispheric representations for the proximal parts of the limbs in humans. We report the case of a patient who presented with a callosal disconnection syndrome, which at a later stage of disease became restricted to left agraphia, left agraphesthesia and left auditory extinction. The anemic character of the agraphesthesia was demonstrated. Tactile naming was normal, which allows us to conclude that separate callosal pathways related to the left language areas transmit information for graphesthesia and tactile naming. Agraphia and agraphesthesia were not observed when the proximal part of the left upper Limb was utilized. These observations support the conclusion that writing and graphesthesia with the proximal part of the limb can be mediated by the ipsilateral cortex.