Pure alexia, or alexia without agraphia, is a curious neuropsychological syndrome where patients lose the ability to read following focal brain injury, while their written and spoken language is largely intact. Typically, both word and letter recognition is impaired, and some attribute the reading deficit to a problem with single letter recognition, perhaps due to a more
general deficit in visual recognition. We have investigated the relationship between letter and word recognition in pure alexia using a word superiority experiment, comparing performance with short words and single letters. I will present data showing that the word recognition deficit in pure alexia is disproportionate to the patients’ problems with
single letter recognition, and relate this to findings in central and peripheral vision in normal participants