Gogi Aphasia without Semantic Memory Impairment

Abstract

Gogi aphasia, which was first described by Imura in 1943, is a form of transcortical sensory aphasia characterized by intact repetition, poor verbal comprehension, verbal paraphasia, and specific impairment of kanji processing. Recently, Gogi aphasia has often been discussed in the context of semantic dementia, a form of frontotemporal lobar degeneration. However, the relation between Gogi aphasia and semantic memory impairment has not been fully elucidated. We tested various semantic memory tasks in a patient with Gogi aphasia after extensive venous infarction involving the left temporal lobe. She did not exhibit any semantic memory impairment as far as we could determine. The findings suggested that Gogi aphasia is not identical with semantic dementia and that impairment of reciprocal coding between lexical items and semantic memory, or symbol and referent, can result in symptoms compatible with Gogi aphasia.