A Literature Review on Neuroanatomical Correlates in Hangul Agraphia

Abstract

This study aimed to provide a foundation for the assessment and intervention of Hangul agraphia by conducting a systematic literature review to analyze the characteristics of previous domestic and international studies on Hangul agraphia and to examine the neuroanatomical correlates of each stage of the writing process. Through academic search engines, a total of 12 studies published in domestic and international journals were selected. To examine the research characteristics, the selected studies were analyzed in terms of publication year, research design, task type and participant group. In addition, to investigate the neuroanatomical correlates of Hangul agraphia, reported lesion sites were examined in relation to the corresponding stages of the writing process. First, research on Hangul agraphia has been steadily conducted, primarily through case reports involving patients with left hemispheric cortical and subcortical lesions, using word-level dictation tasks to identify spelling and motoric writing impairments. Second, lesions in the left hemisphere were mainly associated with impairments in central writing processes and the graphemic-buffer stage, while right hemisphere lesions were linked to visuospatial errors in the motoric writing stage. Third, writing errors reflecting the unique characteristics of Hangul were most prominent in the graphemic-buffer and motoric writing stages. These findings can serve as foundational data for establishing assessment and intervention plans for Hangul agraphia in clinical and research settings.