Processing lexical ambiguities in word triplets: evidence of lexical-semantic deficits following dominant nonthalamic subcortical lesions.
Lexical-semantic function was investigated in 10 participants with lesions of the dominant nonthalamic subcortical (NS) region and a matched normal control group. Participants performed speeded lexical decisions on the 3rd member of auditorily presented word triplets. The 4 critical triplet conditions were concordant (coin-bank-money), discordant (river-bank-money), neutral (day-bank-money), and unrelated (river-day-money). When the interstimulus interval (ISI) between the words in the triplets was 100 ms, patients with NS lesions obtained priming that indicated nonselective lexical access; at 1,250-ms ISI, however, there was no significant priming effect. This pattern of results is consistent with the view that patients with NS lesions can automatically access lexical-semantic information but may be unable to sustain lexical activation through controlled or attentional forms of processing.
Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, The University of Queensland, Australia. d.copland@mailbox.uq.edu.au
D A
DA
Copland
H J
HJ
Chenery
B E
BE
Murdoch
D000368:Aged; D001037:Aphasia / Q000523:psychology; D001921:Brain / Q000002:abnormalities*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed