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Hypergraphia
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==Characteristics== ===Writing style=== American neurologists [[Stephen Waxman]] and [[Norman Geschwind]] were the first to describe hypergraphia, in the 1970s.<ref name="Waxman1974" /> The patients they observed displayed highly compulsive detailed writing, sometimes with literary creativity. The patients kept diaries, which some used to meticulously document minute details of their everyday activities, write poetry, or create lists. Case 1 of their study wrote lists of her relatives, her likes and dislikes, and the furniture in her apartment. Beside lists, the patient wrote poetry, often with a moral or philosophical undertone. She described an incident in which she wrote the lyrics of a song she learned when she was 17 several hundred times and another incident in which she felt the urge to write a word over and over again. Another patient wrote [[aphorism]]s and certain sentences in repetition.<ref name=Waxman1974>{{cite journal|last=Waxman|first=SG|author2=Geschwind, N |title=Hypergraphia in temporal lobe epilepsy. 1974.|journal=Epilepsy & Behavior|date=March 2005 |volume=6|issue=2|pages=282β91|pmid=15710320|doi=10.1016/j.yebeh.2004.11.022|s2cid=32956175}}</ref> A patient from a separate study experienced continuous "rhyming in his head" for five years after a seizure and said that he "felt the need to write them down."<ref name= Mendez1961>{{cite journal|last=Mendez |first=MF |title=Hypergraphia for poetry in an epileptic patient|journal=The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences|date=Fall 2005|volume=17|issue=4|pages=560β1|pmid=16388002|doi=10.1176/jnp.17.4.560}}</ref> The patient did not talk in rhyme, nor did he read poetry. Language capacity and mental status were normal for this patient, except for recorded right-temporal spikes on [[electroencephalogram]]s. This patient had right-hemisphere epilepsy. Functional [[MRI]] scans of other studies suggest that rhyming behavior is produced in the left hemisphere, but Mendez proposed that postictal hypoactivity of the right hemisphere may induce a release of writing and rhyming abilities in the left hemisphere.<ref name=Mendez1961 /> ===Content=== [[File:PSM V55 D217 Macro and micrographic writing by the same epileptic.png|thumb|Macro and micrographic writing by the same epileptic patient]] In addition to writing in different forms (poetry, books, repetition of one word), hypergraphia patients differ in the complexity of their writings. While some writers (e.g. [[Alice Flaherty]]<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Flaherty |first=Alice W. |url=https://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Disease-Drive-Writers-Creative-ebook/dp/B00W0LQN6W/ref=monarch_sidesheet |title=The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain |date=2015-04-28 |publisher=Mariner Books |language=English}}</ref> and Dyane Harwood<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harwood |first=Dyane |url=https://www.amazon.com/Birth-New-Brain-Postpartum-Disorder-ebook/dp/B075GXM6CV/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3T0MEJIQEVKL4&keywords=dyane+harwood&qid=1708100585&s=digital-text&sprefix=dyane+harwood,digital-text,85&sr=1-1 |title=Birth of a New Brain: Healing from Postpartum Bipolar Disorder |last2=Henshaw |first2=Dr Carol |date=2017-10-10 |publisher=Post Hill Press |language=English}}</ref>) use their hypergraphia to help them write extensive papers and books, most patients do not write things of substance. Flaherty describes hypergraphia as a result of decreased temporal lobe function which disinhibits frontal lobe idea and language generation, "sometimes at the expense of quality."<ref name=Flaherty2005>{{cite journal |author=Flaherty AW |title=Frontotemporal and dopaminergic control of idea generation and creative drive |journal=J. Comp. Neurol. |volume=493 |issue=1 |pages=147β53 |date=December 2005 |pmid=16254989 |pmc=2571074 |doi=10.1002/cne.20768|type=Review}}</ref> Patients hospitalized with temporal lobe epilepsy and other disorders causing hypergraphia have written memos and lists (like their favorite songs) and recorded their dreams in extreme length and detail.<ref name=Flaherty2005 /> There are many accounts of patients writing in nonsensical patterns including writing in a center-seeking spiral starting around the edges of a piece of paper.<ref name="Yamadori">{{cite journal |vauthors=Yamadori A, Mori E, Tabuchi M, Kudo Y, Mitani Y |title=Hypergraphia: a right hemisphere syndrome |journal=J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry |volume=49 |issue=10 |pages=1160β4 |date=October 1986 |pmid=3783177 |pmc=1029050 |doi=10.1136/jnnp.49.10.1160}}</ref> In one case study, a patient even wrote backward, so that the writing could only be interpreted with the aid of a mirror.<ref name=Waxman1974 /> Sometimes the writing can consist of scribbles and frantic, random thoughts that are quickly jotted down on paper very frequently. Grammar can be present, but the meaning of these thoughts is generally hard to grasp and the sentences are loose.<ref name="Yamadori" /> In some cases, patients write extremely detailed accounts of events that are occurring or descriptions of where they are.<ref name="Yamadori" /> In some cases, hypergraphia can manifest with compulsive drawing.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Roberts|first1=JK|last2=Robertson|first2=MM|last3=Trimble|first3=MR|title=The lateralising significance of hypergraphia in temporal lobe epilepsy|journal=Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry|date=February 1982|volume=45|issue=2|pages=131β8|doi=10.1136/jnnp.45.2.131|pmid=7069424|pmc=1083040}}</ref> The composer [[Robert Schumann]], during periods of high musical output, also wrote many long letters to his wife Clara; similarly, Vincent van Gogh had much more written correspondence during bouts of intense painting.<ref name=":0" /> Many drawings by patients with hypergraphia exhibit repetition and a high level of detail, sometimes mixing both compulsive writing and drawing together.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Neurology and General Medicine|last=Aminoff|first=Michael|year=2001|pages=579}}</ref>
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