Abstract
Hyperlexia is a condition rarely reported in Spanish-speaking children, characterized
by the ability to recognize written words without formal training. We present two
unrelated autistic children with hyperlexia from Colombia (South America) who were
followed for 8 years with formal neuropsychological evaluations of language, motor
skills, visual perception, attention and behavior. Both children taught themselves
to read before 5 years of age but showed minimal comprehension; both displayed obsessional
reading and difficulties in social skills and attention. Brain CT scans were normal.
Hyperlexia has been associated with hyperactivation of the left superior temporal
cortex; we conclude that the orthographic route is a probable mechanism for the development
of hyperlexia.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Journal of the Neurological SciencesAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Hyperlexia: specific word recognition skills in young children.Except Child. 1967; 34: 41-42
- Autismo e hiperelexia.Rev Neurol (Barc). 2003; 36: S57-S60
- A linguistic analysis of hyperlexia.in: Johnson C. Proceedings of the second international congress for the study of child language. University Press of America, Washington, DC1982: 473-482
- A study of hyperlexia.Brain Lang. 1982; 17: 1-23
- Hyperlexia: a marker for improvement in children with pervasive development disorder?.J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1987; 26: 407-412
- A study of children with hyperlexia.Neurology. 1973; 23: 1107-1116
- On hermetic reading abilities.J Autism Dev Disord. 1987; 17: 29-44
- The syndrome of hyperlexia.Brain Lang. 1976; 3: 339-349
- The performance of hyperlexic children on an “incomplete words” task.Neuropsychologia. 1982; 20: 569-577
- Hyperlexia in Prader-Willi syndrome.Lancet. 1989; 2: 983-984
- West syndrome associated with hyperlexia.Pediatr Neurol. 1990; 6: 344-348
- A study of hyperlexia.Brain Lang. 1982; 17: 1-23
- Hyperlexia: exceptional reading ability in brain-damaged children.Neurology. 1972; 22: 1105-1111
- Implications of hyperlexia in an autistic savant.J Autism Dev Disord. 1993; 23: 397-405
- Reading skills in hyperlexia: a developmental perspective.Psychol Bull. 1999; 125: 338-355
- Dyslexia: cultural diversity and biological unity.Science. 2001; 291: 2165-2167
- The neural basis of hyperlexic reading: an FMRI case study.Neuron. 2004; 41: 11-25
- Neural systems behind word and concept retrieval.Cognition. 2004; 92: 179-229
- Positron emission tomographic studies of the cortical anatomy of single-word processing.Nature. 1988; 331: 585-589
- Alexia.in: Heihnan K.M. Valenstein E. Clinical neuropsychology. 3rd edition. Oxford University Press, New York1997: 41
- Hyperlexia profiles.Brain Lang. 2003; 84: 204-221
Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
May 19,
2006
Received in revised form:
May 18,
2006
Received:
September 9,
2005
Identification
Copyright
© 2006 Elsevier B.V. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
