Preserved priming in auditory perceptual identification in Alzheimer's disease.
To examine the status of auditory perceptual priming in Alzheimer's disease (AD), this study examined the performance of AD patients in auditory perceptual identification of words. In Experiment 1, the processing operations required to perform the tasks at study and test were matched, whereas in Experiment 2, processing operations at study and test were mismatched. AD patients showed normal priming in both experiments, despite impaired recognition memory. These findings extend to the auditory domain the finding of intact perceptual implicit memory in AD. Preserved auditory priming in AD may reflect the operation of a pre-semantic, phonological representation system, localized to posterior neocortical areas that are functionally spared in AD.
Verfaellie
M
M
Boston University Memory Disorders Research Center (151A), Boston VA Medical Centre, 150 S Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02130, USA. verf@bu.edu
Keane
M M
MM
Johnson
G
G
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010700:Phonetics; D012660:Semantics; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*