Visual hallucinations with written words in a case of left parietotemporal lesion

Abstract

A 15 year old ambidextrous patient presented with left temporoparietal lesions after head trauma. Seizures associated with visual hallucinations of written words arose six months later. Electroencephalography showed spike and wave complexes with phase opposition over the left parietal area. On MRI a post-traumatic porencephalic lesion was seen in area 7 and the superior part of area 39 of Brodmann; on T2 sequences, it was surrounded by a hyperecho predominating in the inferior part of the parietal lobe and extending in the posteroexternal temporal cortex. This first description of hallucinations of written words raises the possibility of the presence, in the temporoparietal cortex, of specific representations ("lexicon") of corresponding information.