Semantic priming in Broca's aphasics at a short SOA: no support for an automatic access deficit. 1997

P Hagoort
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. peha@mpi.nl

This study tests the recent claim that Broca's aphasics are impaired in automatic lexical access, including the retrieval of word meaning. Subjects are required to perform a lexical decision on visually presented prime target pairs. Half of the word targets are preceded by a related word, half by an unrelated word. Primes and targets are presented with a long stimulus-onset-asynchrony (SOA) of 1400 msec and with a short SOA of 300 msec. Normal priming effects are observed in Broca's aphasics for both SOAs. This result is discussed in the context of the claim that Broca's aphasics suffer from an impairment in the automatic access of lexical-semantic information. It is argued that none of the current priming studies provides evidence supporting this claim, since with short SOAs priming effects have been reliably obtained in Broca's aphasics. The results are more compatible with the claim that in many Broca's aphasics the functional locus of their comprehension deficit is at the level of postlexical integration processes.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D007806 Language Disorders Conditions characterized by deficiencies of comprehension or expression of written and spoken forms of language. These include acquired and developmental disorders. Acquired Language Disorders,Language Disorders, Acquired,Acquired Language Disorder,Language Disorder,Language Disorder, Acquired
D008875 Middle Aged An adult aged 45 - 64 years. Middle Age
D011930 Reaction Time The time from the onset of a stimulus until a response is observed. Response Latency,Response Speed,Response Time,Latency, Response,Reaction Times,Response Latencies,Response Times,Speed, Response,Speeds, Response
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000328 Adult A person having attained full growth or maturity. Adults are of 19 through 44 years of age. For a person between 19 and 24 years of age, YOUNG ADULT is available. Adults
D000368 Aged A person 65 years of age or older. For a person older than 79 years, AGED, 80 AND OVER is available. Elderly
D001039 Aphasia, Broca An aphasia characterized by impairment of expressive LANGUAGE (speech, writing, signs) and relative preservation of receptive language abilities (i.e., comprehension). This condition is caused by lesions of the motor association cortex in the FRONTAL LOBE (BROCA AREA and adjacent cortical and white matter regions). Agrammatism,Aphasia, Motor,Aphasia, Nonfluent,Broca Aphasia,Dysphasia, Broca,Agrammatic Broca Aphasia,Agrammatic Broca's Aphasia,Aphasia, Anterior,Aphasia, Ataxic,Aphasia, Expressive,Aphasia, Frontocortical,Dysphasia, Broca's,Verbal Aphasia Syndrome,Agrammatic Broca Aphasias,Agrammatic Broca's Aphasias,Agrammatic Brocas Aphasia,Anterior Aphasia,Anterior Aphasias,Aphasia Syndrome, Verbal,Aphasia Syndromes, Verbal,Aphasia, Agrammatic Broca,Aphasia, Agrammatic Broca's,Aphasias, Agrammatic Broca,Aphasias, Agrammatic Broca's,Aphasias, Anterior,Aphasias, Ataxic,Aphasias, Broca,Aphasias, Frontocortical,Ataxic Aphasia,Ataxic Aphasias,Broca Aphasia, Agrammatic,Broca Aphasias,Broca Aphasias, Agrammatic,Broca Dysphasia,Broca's Aphasia, Agrammatic,Broca's Aphasias, Agrammatic,Broca's Dysphasia,Dysphasia, Brocas,Expressive Aphasia,Frontocortical Aphasia,Frontocortical Aphasias,Motor Aphasia,Nonfluent Aphasia,Syndrome, Verbal Aphasia,Syndromes, Verbal Aphasia,Verbal Aphasia Syndromes
D001332 Automatism Automatic, mechanical, and apparently undirected behavior which is outside of conscious control.
D014825 Vocabulary The sum or the stock of words used by a language, a group, or an individual. (From Webster, 3d ed) Vocabularies

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