Exner's+Writing+Area

Exner's writing area lies within a small region along the lateral convexity, near the foot of the second frontal convolution of the left hemisphere. Although some authors have denied the existence of Exner's area, this region appears to be the final common pathway where linguistic impulses receive their final motoric stamp for the purposes of writing; i.e. the formation of graphemes and their temporal sequential expression. Thus, Exner's writing area appears to program the ajacent hand-area represented in the primary motor areas so that lingusitic impulses received through Broca's area, can be integrated into hand movements so that words can be written down.

(border regions) 46, 8, 6
 * Broadmans Areas:**

Broca's area: possibly acts to organize and relay impulses received from the posterior language zones to Exner's area in instances where written expression is desired.
 * Connections from: **

secondary and primary motor areas: final written expression.
 * Connections to: **

in awake moving patients has resulted in the arrest of ongoing motor acts, including the capacity to write or perform rapid alternating movements of the fingers. In some instances, writing and speech arrest were noted.
 * Electrical Stimulation: **

Lesions or seizure activity localized to this vicinity lead to deficiencies involving the elementary motoric aspects of writing. Grapheme formation becomes labored, incoordinated, and takes on a very sloppy appearance. Cursive handwriting is usually more disturbed than printing. In cases of well circumscribed lesions, lisping may be present and some fine motor control present but usually there are no gross deficiencies of motor functioning or speech
 * Injury/Damage: **
 * -**Agraphia

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">pure (frontal) agraphia: spelling may or may not be affected <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">vs. parietal lesions: spelling as well as writing is often abnormal.
 * Region Differential Dx: **

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Rather, with left frontal lesions more frequently there are disturbances of grapheme selection such that the patient may seem to have "forgotten" how to form certain letters and/or may misplace or even add unnecessary letters when writing. When spelling orally or typing the ability to spell is often better preserved.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Damage localized to this vicinity can be secondary to perinatal trauma, tumors, or vascular abnormalities. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Disturbances involving constructional or manipulospatial functioning such as painting are not apparent. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Hence, disturbances secondary to lesions localized to Exner's area limited to abnormalities involving linguistic-symbolic grapheme motor control.