Language symptoms

Global aphasia

"Global aphasia - This is the most severe form of aphasia, and is applied to patients who can produce few recognizable words and understand little or no spoken language. Global aphasics can neither read nor write. Global aphasia may often be seen immediately after the patient has suffered a stroke and it may rapidly improve if the damage has not been too extensive. However, with greater brain damage, severe and lasting disability may result."

(National Aphasia Association's website, Aphasia Fact Sheet, June 22, 1999)

"Something really scary just happened.. our department secretery just came to my door and spoke to me. I didn't understand a word she said!! Nor could I get any words to come out. I just gestured toward my head and managed to say I have a migraine.. and told her to just show me what she was talking about (something about a 'shelf') I finally managed to figure it out with her help. But wow, that caught me by surprise. Half an hour before this happened, I had no trouble at all speaking to one of my colleagues in the office next to mine.

The migraine is just a dull throbbing right now, but with lots of shadowy visual symptoms and nausea. I've just taken one fioricet and one diclofenac, and I'm starting on my first cup of half-caffeine, half-decaf coffee of the day.

I hate these weird symptoms. I always worry that I must seem like a drug addict, with all of these weird migraine-related problems that have to crop up while I'm at work!"

(Mella Wyrden, Livejournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: language, January 16, 2006)

"It was not so much that I couldn't hear her.. her voice was at a constant volume. It was just that her words didn't make sense in my head.. except for the word 'shelf' (I could picture a shelf in my mind when she said this.. but the other words around it were all garbled)"

(Mella Wyrden, Livejournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: language, January 16, 2006)

"Hi K, Yes, I did envision a shelf when she said the word.. but nothing else made any sense. Maybe I sould see it because it was the only object-related word in what she was saying to me.

It was really scary to suddenly be without language like that! The only thing I had was 'shelf' so I kept saying 'shelf? shelf?' and gesturing with my hands, like I was trying to get more information out of this one word.

After I got the language part of my brain back, I explained myself to her a bit better and apologised! She said she gets them too, but never has language-related symptoms.

Thanks for giving me a term to go with this problem. It's better to say 'global aphasia' than it is to have people wonder what kind of crack I've been smoking before coming to work. It gets depressing when I can't function. It's very isolating. I can't even joke about it with people at work who've never experienced it or don't understand it, because it sounds too bizarre!"

(Mella Wyrden, Livejournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: language, January 16, 2006)

"Wow.. thank you so much for your diagnosis. You've made me feel so much better. I'm glad it's something that's been documented.

After reading more about global aphasia this afternoon on the internet, I feel very sad for those in whom it's a chronic condition. It put me into such a panic to feel alienated from my language all of a sudden. If I hadn't at least had 'shelf' to grasp at like a life preserver, I would have felt completely lost.

And I do feel much better now.. thanks :)"

(Mella Wyrden, Livejournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: language, January 16, 2006)

Pierre Paul Broca (1824-1888). (See here)

Broca's aphasia

"Broca's aphasia - This is a form of aphasia in which speech output is severely reduced and is limited mainly to short utterances, of less than four words. Vocabulary access is limited in persons with Broca's aphasia, and their formation of sounds is often laborious and clumsy. The person may understand speech relatively well and be able to read, but be limited in writing. Broca's aphasia is often referred to as a 'non fluent aphasia' because of the halting and effortful quality of speech."

(National Aphasia Association's website, Aphasia Fact Sheet, June 22, 1999)

"Wow - I am glad to hear that some other people have this symptom too. When I get a right hemisphere migraine, I often lose the ability to speak, apart from one or two words - for example, the first time it happened, no matter what I tried to say, all that would come out was 'career'. Unfortunately, on one or two occasions, it hasn't been such an innocuous word that I have been able to say! I can understand what people are saying, and can read, but can't write, think (verbally) or speak. One of the most disconcerting things is that it becomes very quiet in my head - I guess we take for granted that we think to ourselves a lot of the time, but when the words aren't there, the silence is pretty daunting. One interesting thing from this phenomenom is that you should be able to tell which hemisphere is dominant for speech - in my case the right hemisphere, as I lose feeling in the left side of my body during the same migraine."

(Fiona Bremner, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: migraine speech problems, December 3, 1998)

"I am so relieved there are other individuals experiencing migraines with aphasia. I usually feel a tightening sensation all over my head just before I have the expressive aphasia. It is quite embarrassing when I am at work counseling families and I am attacked by one of these episodes. The episodes typically last 20 to 30 minutes and during that time I have great difficulty naming objects, even my children!"

(Rebecca, Email to Klaus Podoll, June 8, 2005)

"I started getting severe migraines at ~ 17 yrs. I'm 40 now, and the pain has lessened considerably over the years, but the auras have increased... Recently, I began having several 'episodes' of the scintillating zigzag, one right after another, preceded by and followed by severe motor skill problems. My speech loses coherence, slows up, and semantics are skewed and words/sentences rearranged. I have had problems with jobs, police thinking I am DUI [Driving Under the Influence], and all kinds of fun things happen over the years. I was SO glad to see I wasn't the only one!"

(Sara S, Email to Klaus Podoll, July 14, 2005; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

Broca's aphasia in a bilingual migraineur

Several clinical observations in brain damaged bilingual aphasics have shown that these patients do not necessarily manifest the same language disorders in both languages (for a review see Fabbro, 2001). The following report from a female migraine sufferer demonstrates severe word-finding difficulties and agrammatism of the language acquired in childhood with relative fluency in the other language (Latin) learned at school and university and good comprehension in both.

"I was reading through a collection of posts made by migraine patients with some kind of Aphasia, and there was a banner indicating that you wanted additional reports of similar symptoms.

I'm a a 26 year old American woman of Celtic descent, and I've had migraines since I was 3. My parents are both physicians and migraine sufferers, so I was diagnosed quite early on. I am a graduate student in Ancient Greek and Latin, and have studied Latin for 11 years now.

When I get a particularly severe migraine, I have extended periods where I can't form English sentences, and in some cases can't even produce English words. I can understand what people are saying, but I can't produce or repeat English. The strange thing is, when I'm having such an episode, I can produce Latin speech just as well as I can when unimpaired; in some cases, the Latin will come out in place of the English without any conscious decision on my part [so-called spontaneous translation (Lebrun, 1995); see also here]. It's not that my Latin is so good that I'd consider myself fluent - for some reason, I can access it when I can't get at my native language. I think this may be because I experience Latin primarily as a written language, and it may be stored in another part of the brain. I have no idea if this happens to other people, but it seemed like it might be interesting."

(MAJL, Email to Klaus Podoll, July 15, 2007; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

Karl Wernicke (1848-1904). (See here)

Wernicke's aphasia

"Wernicke's aphasia - In this form of aphasia the ability to grasp the meaning of spoken words is chiefly impaired, while the ease of producing connected speech is not much affected. Therefore Wernicke's aphasia is referred to as a 'fluent aphasia.' However, speech is far from normal. Sentences do not hang together and irrelevant words intrude-sometimes to the point of jargon, in severe cases. Reading and writing are often severely impaired."

(National Aphasia Association's website, Aphasia Fact Sheet, June 22, 1999)

"Yes!! I'm here!!! The confusion and problems with speaking usually set in after the first signs of the migraine for me (numbness, aura). However, I haven't always had these speech problems with all my migraines--they first occcured when I was about 13 or 14, and got a migraine at school. On the way home, I was trying to talk, and it felt like I just couldn't do it. I would say words, but they were nonsense!! My parents freaked out and thought I was having a stroke or something. They called the Dr. though and he assured them that it can happen in very severe migraines. It's so scary when I experience it though. It feels like not only is half my body gone, but I'm losing my mind too!! LOL!"

(ThatKat, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: migraine speech problems, November 29, 1998)

"I suffered an episode recently which I believe was a severe migraine attack, but had significant confusion associated with it. It came amid a series of other migraines, with a strong visual factor and with the usual 30 minutes to an hour of duration. I recall being unable to understand spoken language, functionally, during the episode proper. I was unable to follow directions given verbally, but could process visual and contextual cues (non-verbal language). Apparently, my speech was clear (not dysarthric), but 'confused', by reports of others. I have recollection of there being very bright light, with either substantial field cuts or tunnel vision. My memory for specifics of the event is unclear. This has happened before, but not nearly at this level."

(Leslie Sudak, Email to Markus Dahlem, March 11, 2005)

"I've experienced migraine with aura for 15 years (I'm 40), but have found them so fascinating that I leave them untreated. I'm a speech-language pathologist, a profession I chose after experiencing the aphasic effects (among many other perceptions) of my migraine. I just had to understand how language could become so disordered, and for such a brief time. My aphasia usually resembles a Wernicke's aphasia, if I had to categorize it. Auditory comprehension is clearly reduced, fluent language, and word-errors are within the same semantic category, as best as I can tell. This has given me tremendous insight when working with my own patients. Staff often has used me to 'interpret' the disordered language of an aphasic patient, because I somehow seem to understand it... perhaps from my unique perspective?"

(Leslie Sudak, Email to Klaus Podoll, March 11, 2005)

Anomic aphasia

"Anomic aphasia - This term is applied to persons who are left with a persistent inability to supply the words for the very things they want to talk about-particularly the significant nouns and verbs. As a result their speech, while fluent in grammatical form and output is full of vague circumlocutions and expressions of frustration. They understand speech well, and in most cases, read adequately. Difficulty finding words is as evident in writing as in speech."

(National Aphasia Association's website, Aphasia Fact Sheet, June 22, 1999)

"I KNOW I have some form of aphasia, too, before the onset of the migraine. It's very irritating for people to have to try and complete my sentences for me. Example: 'Erica, could you make sure the milk gets put back into the....the....oh, it's a simple word, you know what I mean....(exasperated sounds)' 'Mom, do you mean 'refrigerator'?' 'YES!, that's the word I was searching for!' 'Daaaaad, mom's acting really weird again!'"

(Anne Buede, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: anyone "manic" before a migraine?, February 17, 1998)

"I was just reminded by someone who loves me very much: P that it gets even stranger than I just described: Me: 'Honey, could you....um....you know, (here I begin to make lifting motions with my arms), could you do that thing....that movement where you ...do something....to the milk... so that it gets into the refrigerator?' Erica: 'Mom , do you want me to 'pick up' the milk?' Me: 'Yes'! Erica: 'Daaaaad! Are you sure it's safe to let Mom out of the house...?'"

(Anne Buede, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: anyone "manic" before a migraine?, February 17, 1998)

"My aura is confusion. I am/ was (just quit!) a public school teacher, junior high. I knew a HA was coming when my students would stop me because I would not speak the words that I thought I was saying (does that make sense?) Somewhat verbally dyslexic!"

(Sandra Mize, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Migraine aura??, May 29, 1998)

"I started getting migraines about 10 years ago (when I was 14). The first one I had didn't end up with a major headache (only a minor one), but I got the blind spots, loss of feeling in one side of my body, etc. I then started forgetting words... just every day words and could barely communicate. I was terrified and didn't tell me family, and later, as these became more frequent and associated with the headaches, I realized (and was diagnosed) as suffering from migraines. But still today, when I have a severe migraine, I'm unable to remember basic words and names. Has anyone else experienced this? My typical other symptoms are auras (with EVERY migraine), tunnel vision, numbness on limbs on one side of my body and one half of my lips."

(Michelle Collins, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: migraine speech problems, November 27, 1998)

"I find I have unusual clarity of thought and speech about 24 hours before the headache. During the headache I find I speak words that I am not thinking of but they come out in a sentence. It is a little scary. For instance, I might try to ask someone to put something on a table, but I will say floor. I am not sure if it is the headache or medication I take. I realize what I have said and try to correct myself. It's very strange."

(Donna, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: migraine speech problems, December 1, 1998)

"I too get aphasia (loss of word recognition) during the aura or lead-up phase of the migraine. I usually also get flashing-light patterns and blind spots, but the aphasia is the most annoying symptom, because I am a writer by profession and I have a very large vocabulary. When it hits I can't even remember simple words like 'fork' or 'hair.' I use a Mac computer and so have described the pre-migraine aphasia as feeling like my 'finder' program got corrupted. The words are there, but I can't access them. Like you, I feel detached and calm, but also apologetic, because it seems like I am causing trouble or extra work for those around me (mainly my husband). The funny thing is that when the headache hits, the aphasia goes away -- but by then I am in far too much pain to want to speak."

(Catherine Yronwode, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Migraine Sufferer Seeks Advice and Cure, April 25, 2000)

"when i have a bad h.a. i stutter some words i'm trying to say or stutter similar words (like cup vs plate) and totally cannot remember some words altogether. also when i am talking, i call these words 'thingies' when i can't remember the name/word and that drives my family nuts as they don't know what the heck i'm trying to say.... but usually it doesn't affect my typing but it sometimes affects my reading, it's weird.... sometimes i think i got caught in the 'twighlight' zone..."

(Sherry, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Speech and Migraine, April 29, 2000)

"it's soooo weird when it happens. I can see a picture of the object, etc. in my mind and i know what i want to say but my mouth won't cooperate..."

(Sherry, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Speech and Migraine, April 30, 2000)

"You know, I am sure, the word that I simply cannot bring to mind at present… I have occular migraine, and for a week or two after an attack, I can't always bring to mind the word I want."

(Virginia Marin AKA Grandma Moses, Folklore, May 15, 2001) © 2001 Creative Marketeam Canada Ltd. doing business as Suite101.com

"For an entire day before a migraine, I can't find, uh, you know, oh yeah, words. Among other things, I have whole days where I cannot find the simplest words and names. Then just before my pain, my face gets bright red and my ears get red and hot. Then pain. I have not noticed any post-migraine problems yet, but the pre- are pretty noticeable."

(Val in Boise, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Auras and post-migraines, November 28, 2002)

"Sometimes my speech gets muddled, I stammer, say the wrong word, etc. Unusual considering I'm typically quite articulate. When this 'speech problem' starts, I just look at my husband, shake my head, and say, 'Oh crap, I can't talk for awhile, nothing's coming out right.' And I stop talking until the confusion aura passes. Funny thing is, I can do light reading just fine. So, that's what I do."

(Wildflower, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Auras and post-migraines, November 30, 2002)

"And it's got me. The thing that disturbs me more than anything though, is that the migraine seems to disrupt some of my language links - simple, everyday words that just won't come out, as though I've become a dyslectic to my own mind. There's a code in there I can't quite decipher, though I know, I know, what I want to say. So instead of anything incoherent, I'm just going to scribble down two notes to myself: Norse Goddesses and Edith Södergran. And now I'm going to go throw up."

(Elna Gabriella Jönsson, blog, September 1, 2004) [more]

"I suffered the opposite effect when I used to sufer from migraines (in teens to mid 20's). I almost 'forgot' how to speak. I knew what I wanted to say, but it was as if every single word was on the tip of my tongue but I could not get it out."

(Chevoix, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: migraines and talking?, December 13, 2004)

"Episode date 3/12/05, ~10:15 a.m. While driving, I noticed a heaviness descend on my head and seeming to shroud my eyes, but from behind, as if from a leaden miasma, from above and within. I noticed mild degree of scintillation in upper bilateral visual field, and a blackening tunnel along the lower left visual aspects. This was difficult to quantify, as this was while driving through a snowstorm, and there was therefore competing visual stimuli. I stopped at a store, with 'deepening' of symptoms. The fluorescent lights of the store seemed to make light unbearable. I has difficulty seeing package labels, though I could read them, part by part, when turning my head and catching bits of the print. I tried to ask the clerk to put some items in one bag, some in another. These words came, in fits and starts: 'Can you do... put... have... them in the same box... no... container... thing that will hold them... it's a bag. Will you put them at the bag'. The words came as a struggle, with great embarrassment and to a puzzled look by the clerk. He said something that I think was affirming my request, and I saw him talking, but could not quite understand the exact words. There was enough contextual information. Note the preserved syntax, word errors in same semantic category. No jargon or neologisms. On observation at the time, I was able to read adequately, noting print materials at the store. On leaving the store for my office (again with fluorescent lighting), I noticed a tingling in my (left) toes, spreading up my foot midway. Moments later, the fingers of my left hand began to tingle, as with pins and needles. I spoke with several people, but felt speech to be effortful and non-fluent, but functional. Vision clearing, but with a heaviness and pressure on my head, especially in the temporal-frontal areas. This heaviness persisted for several hours. The episode seemed to be over by 11:20, over 55 minutes from observed onset."

(Leslie Sudak, Email to Klaus Podoll, March 14, 2005)

"The symptom I have the most trouble with is language problems. Sometimes the things I want to say just won't come out, like there is a disconnect. Or the COMPLETELY wrong word will come out when I mean to say something..."

(Mella Wyrden, LiveJournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: Two questions for you all, August 12, 2005)

"... like when I saw a picture of my friend's son, and he was holding a little toy rabbit. I said, 'Oh he looks so sweet, and look, he's holding a cute little banana...' And when I called caterpillars 'mushrooms'. So embarrassing..!"

(Mella Wyrden, LiveJournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: language, January 17, 2006)

"oh no... something like that happened to me recently! I was on the phone, trying to tell my mother something about my 'cupboard' but the word was just not there. So I had to describe what I meant: 'it's got a door, you put the... things... in it, it's made of wood', etc. Finally she guessed properly. Then she laughed at me, but I was almost in tears. It was really scary not being able to think of the word. "

(Mella Wyrden, LiveJournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: language, January 17, 2006)

"I usually get numbness. In my hand and then it can spread up to my elbow... That's another example of how I couldn't think quite well. When I got numbness to my elbow, I was going to tell someone, but I couldn't remember if that part of my arm was really my elbow. I was thinking to myself, 'Which part of my arm is my elbow?? Is that it??' That happened a few times. I would think of a word I needed to use, but once I thought of it, I second guessed it."

(Erin Lemelin, Email to Klaus Podoll, February 5, 2006)

Conduction aphasia

"I am a 39-year old female with approximately 5-year history of migraine with aura WITHOUT headache. I have personally never had a migraine headache; I have, however, suffered from tension headaches in the past which abated completely with massage therapy (and a better office chair!). Both my mother and my brother suffer terribly from migraine with aura with headache, both of them since they were in their teens/20s. My very first instance of visual disturbance coincidentally happened around the same time that I was being tested for possible secondary hypothyroidism; as a result, my family doctor ordered a pituitary CT, which showed no abnormalities (approximately 5 years ago). I am now receiving treatment for hypothyroidism. My incidence of aura is of variable frequency and intensity, no more frequent than once every 3 months or so. Approximately 6 months ago, I had a very marked episode of aura, and for the first time I noticed neurological symptoms including problems with fine motor control (difficulty grasping objects, operating laptop touch pad), slight stumbling and difficulties with speech (spontaneous speech and reading to myself were fine, but reading aloud I frequently substituted words, or garbled sounds within longer words). The whole thing lasted about an hour, leaving me feeling tired afterward. I reported this to my family doctor who recommended I discontinue taking birth control pills. I had a second occurrence of these same symptoms last Saturday (March 11, 2007). I have visited my family doctor again and will be referred to a visiting neurologist when they are next in the area (I live in Canada's sub-arctic where we do not have ready access to specialists). After talking with my mother and brother to ask if they have the same symptoms, neither one can recall experiencing them but both note that they are typically so debilitated by pain and nausea that they simply may not have noticed!

FYI, in doing some reading, I came across this definition that describes *exactly* the type of speech problem I have during these episodes: Conduction Aphasia (speech, writing and silent reading intact, but repetition, reading aloud and dictation impaired). From what little I can find about aphasia and migraines online, this sort of aphasia does not seem to be a common symptom of migraine. It will be several (2-5 months) before I can see the neurologist - should I be worried that this is symptomatic of something other than migraine?"

(Deborah, Email to Klaus Podoll, March 15, 2007)

Joseph Jules Déjérine (1849-1917). (See here)

Alexia with agraphia

Alexia with agraphia, a neuropsychological syndrome first described by Joseph Jules Déjérine in 1891, is most frequently caused by disturbances or lesions involving the left angular gyrus, but in rare cases it can also observed with other lesion sites including the left posterior inferior temporal lobe (Kawahata et al., 1988) or the left occipital lobe (Sato et al., 1987). The following report received by a reader of this website is the first published observation of recurring alexia with agraphia occurring as migraine aura symptom.

"I am a 19 year old female who has been suffering from migraine with aura for probably just over 5 years. I can get symptoms without any headache. They always involve aura which can range from a small visual disturbance to fairly large. I also get painful numbness in my lower arm, if bad the entire arm and my mouth (including teeth and tongue), occasionally my thigh. Also dizziness and sometimes a feeling like I'm going to fall over and a pale complexion.

This sounds pretty standard from what I've read but I haven't read is about my inability to be able to pronounce words. Sometimes after my vision has returned, I can read a word and know exactly what it means but cannot say it outloud. Also if someone gives me some numbers to write down I cannot do this either and either forget them or write them down incorrectly. This lasts about half an hour after. Also if copying notes in lectures from the board I cannot remember how to write simple words like 'the' and cannot form the letters properly. This only usually happens with a bad migraine. Is this normal?"

(Caroline, Email Markus Dahlem, February 8, 2006)

"I cannot say the whole word aloud, when I try to pronounce it usually comes out as a mess of sounds, and the word I know has been said incorrectly which usually causes frustration. It is usually a word of more than one syllabul such as 'supermarket'. Sometimes even when I can say the word I question if it is has been said correctly (so even if I had said it, it doesnt sound correct). I can also muddle words in a sentence but this is more eaisly corrected. Where I work I take credit card numbers and when copying them down after a migraine there is usually a mistake and no matter how slowly I read through the numbers with the customer it is unlikely I can identify the mistake. Which is highly unusual as I have an Alevel in Maths and am studying a Chemistry degree. As far as I am aware I have been able to copy speech when heard verbally it is more reading words and saying them aloud or having to copy them down.

With regards to copying words down I have in previous years written a word repeatidly and only got it correct on the third or fourth attempt. But evidence of this is little as by this time I am suffering numbeness in my hand and arm so cannot hold a pen. At this point I usually need to remove all jewellery from my wrist and keep my hand and arm from touching anything including a sleeve. I think I have a past set of lecture notes that were written during a migraine (both during and after the aura). My writing tends to look different, for obvious reasons more messy."

(Caroline, Email to Klaus Podoll, February 10, 2006)

"I just forgot to mention. Before the onset of the aura I can look at my arm and I know it's my own arm but when I move it it looks like it's someone else's arm. It sounds ridiculous but my brain knows it's my arm by recognition but when I move it it doesn't seem to recognise I am moving it and it is like watching someone else move it about. This is a classic sign to me a migraine is coming on. I don't know if you can make much sense of that but just another part of the migraine."

(Caroline, Email to Klaus Podoll, February 10, 2006)

Reading disturbances

"Yup, same here. The aura period is just like a stroke, only temporarily. Can't talk straight, can't see straight, can't think straight. Sometimes, can't read properly because the scotomas are in the way, and sometimes can't read properly because the words don't make sense anymore. Yup, yup, yup."

(ThatKat, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: migraine speech problems, December 3, 1998)

"[This migraine attack was] Over comparatively quickly, around 12 hours... This one, besides the sea anemones, had a new feature that popped up after I sent the post. Any text I looked straight at, I couldn't see the vowels. No spaces where they should be either, just consonants run together. If I didn't look straight at it, they were there. Freaked me out, first time that's happened. Only for a couple minutes at the end of the aura though."

(Elaine M. Brown, Newsgroups: alt.callahans, Subject: Migraine Aura, February 17, 2000; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

As pointed out in a discussion about this fascinating case by Prof. John C. Marshall, this hitherto unknown symptom of "reading without vowels" is reminiscent of previous observations of "writing without vowels" (Marshall, 1991) as reported by Cubelli (1991) in two patients who had suffered damage to the left hemispheres of their brains. The duration of this migraine sufferer's aura phenomenon for a couple of minutes would allow, in case of its recurrence, its being tested experimentally. "She should be unable to tell whether PAT (etc.) is PAT, PET, PIT, POT or PUT. One might have to present the words tachistoscopically to ensure that she looked straight at them. If you showed her EUA would she see 'nothing'? If she sees POT as PT, would she nonetheless recognize 205?"

(John C. Marshall, Letter to Klaus Podoll, June 3, 2005)

Writing disturbances

"Several hours before a migraine I'll find myself typing like this throughout all my documents: the word 'somewhat' as 'emostahw'"

(Judy, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: anyone "manic" before a migraine?, February 18, 1998)

"dear me
I wrote 'to' instead of 'too'. It could be my migraine headache.
It stinks.
best
penny"

(Penny Smith, Newsgroups: mensa.talk.misc, Subject: Movies as Art, August 21, 2000)

"Please be aware that I'm actually having moderate level migraine today and at times have problems with spelling, grammar, etc - will do my best to clarify and correct things." - "My apologies again as I am noticing many additional spelling errors [in my previous email]. I do not have spell 'checker' on this old email program and actually read through the text twice before sending it to you. This happens any time I write while having headache (it might be another interesting thing to take note of)."

(Kathryn, Emails to Klaus Podoll, July 5, 2005; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

References

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Bigley GK, Sharp FR. Reversible alexia without agraphia due to migraine. Arch Neurol 1983; 40: 114-115.
Crisp AH, Levett G, Davies P, Rose FC, Coltheart M. Cerebral hemisphere function and migraine. J Psychiatr Res 1989; 23: 201-212.
Cubelli R. A selective deficit for writing vowels in acquired dysgraphia. Nature 1991; 353:258-260.
Dietz TE, McKiel VH. Transient high altitude expressive aphasia. High Alt Med Biol 2000; 1: 207-211.
Evers S, Homann B, Vollmer J. Agraphia as the only symptom of migraine aura: a case report. Cephalalgia 1996; 16: 562-563.
Fabbro F. The Bilingual Brain: Bilingual Aphasia. Brain and Language 2001; 79: 201-210. [PDF]
Fleishman JA, Segall JD, Judge FP Jr. Isolated transient alexia. A migrainous accompaniment. Arch Neurol 1983; 40:115-116.
Kawahata N, Nagata K, Shishido F. Alexia with agraphia due to the left posterior inferior temporal lobe lesion - neuropsychological analysis and its pathogenetic mechanisms. Brain Lang 1988; 33: 296-310.
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