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Abstract:
Neuroimaging studies have reported the recruitment of
inferotemporal regions and the anterior fusiform gyrus (AFG) in
repetition priming. It is unclear, however, whether these regions
are necessary for successful repetition priming. To address this
question we gave two tests of repetition priming to a patient
(J.P.) with bilateral damage to the AFG and anterior temporal
regions. J.P. had undergone a left anterior temporal lobectomy
following herpes simplex encephalitis, and also showed atrophy or
signal abnormality in the right anterior temporal lobe and right
AFG. The first test examined priming for previously presented
six-letter pseudowords. The second test examined crossmodal priming
in an object naming task by preceding an object with its name or an
unrelated word. We compared J.P.ís performance to 10 age-
and education-matched control participants (CON). J.P. showed
priming effects (reaction time for studied minus unstudied items)
similar to CON (10ms for CON vs. 16ms for J.P. on test 1; 100ms vs.
140ms on test 2). T-tests conducted across items indicated no
effect of group on the reaction time for primed or unprimed stimuli
on either task (p>.1). We conclude that the AFG is not necessary
for repetition priming.
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