Causes of Alexia

Alexia typically occurs following damage to the left hemisphere of the brain or to the areas of the occipital and parietal lobes, which are responsible for processing auditory, phonological and visual aspects of language. The region at the junction of occipital and temporal lobes (sometimes called the occipito-temporal junction) coordinates information that is gathered from visual and auditory processing and assigns meaning to the stimulus. Alexia can also occur following damage to the inferior frontal. Damage to these different areas of the cortex result in somewhat different patterns of difficulty in affected individuals. In some cases, a stroke can cause alexia.