Face-name repetition priming in semantic dementia: a case report.
Repetition priming (RP) has been employed as a measure of implicit processing in patients suffering from a breakdown of semantic memory, as in the case of semantic dementia (SD), a subtype of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). Here, we investigated face-name representation in a case of SD using a paradigm of within- and cross-domain repetition priming. Compared to ten healthy participants, SD patient did not show any facilitation when a famous name was primed by its own face (cross-domain) or when the prime was the same proper name (within-domain). Results are discussed within the hypothesis of a degradation of face and name representation, one of the most consistent accounts explaining semantic deficits in SD.
Calabria
Marco
M
IRCCS San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, Via Piastroni, 4 25125 Brescia, Italy.
Miniussi
Carlo
C
Bisiacchi
Patrizia S
PS
Zanetti
Orazio
O
Cotelli
Maria
M
D000368:Aged; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D003704:Dementia / Q000523:psychology*; D005145:Face; D005197:Famous Persons; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008568:Memory; D009275:Names; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011930:Reaction Time