Case Studies in Neuropsychology of Reading

The study of reading disorders has moved forward quickly over the past few years. Competing models of reading are continuously refined; functional imaging reveals the full extent of the damage and records the on-line activity of reading processes in the normal and damaged brain. Fundamental to these studies is an understanding of the characteristics of the reading disorders, the methods used to reveal these characteristics, and the theoretical explanations based upon them. This book is designed to help readers keep up with, or newly step into, this developing field of study by capturing our present state of knowledge concerning a range of reading disorders of central interest. Written by experts, each chapter represents a personal account of a reading disorder through which details of the features of the disorder, methods used for testing, and theoretical accounts are illustrated. Controversies are explained, theories evaluated and anomalies pointed out. From this emerges a picture of the centralproperties of each disorder and the contribution of each to our understanding of the reading system as a whole. However, the picture is not complete: loose threads tantalize, some findings are hard to explain, and some newly controversial theories are put forward. The intention is to provide information that will help to equip the reader with the knowledge and expertise necessary to take the study of these reading disorders forward.