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Recognition of familiar handwriting in stroke and dementia

From the Department of Neurology, University of Erlangen–Nuremberg at Erlangen, Germany.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Josef G. Heckmann, Department of Neurology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Schwabachanlage 6, 91054 Erlangen, Germany; e-mail: josef.heckmann{at}neuro.med.uni-erlangen.de

Article abstract—— Patients with left stroke (n = 17), right stroke (n = 16), and dementia (n = 17) and healthy controls (n = 15) were asked to recognize familiar handwriting among 10 handwritten texts. All healthy controls and 96% of the left-brain–damaged patients were able to recognize the familiar handwriting, but only 44% of the right-brain–damaged and 41% of the dementia patients (none if Mini-Mental Status Test score was <18, n = 5) were able to do so. The authors conclude that the recognition of handwriting is a special skill that is independent of other verbal and lexical tasks.