ROLE AND MECHANISMS OF THE MEDIAL TEMPORAL LOBE IN PERCEPTUAL PRIMING EFFECTS
内侧颞叶系统在知觉启动中的作用及其机制

This study explored the role and its mechanisms of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) in color priming effects. Eleven MTL lesioned patients and 18 age, gender and education matched normal subjects were tested. In the study session, a series of colored words were presented and the subjects were asked to integrate the color and the word together. In the test session, the subjects read the words presented in the original state (old stimuli), or a different old color (recombined stimuli) and new words (new stimuli) as quickly as possible in Experiment 1, whereas they read the words presented in the original old or new color, and new words in Experiment 2. If the patients named the old stimuli more quickly than the recombined ones (or words presented in a new color), they were considered to show color priming effects. The results showed that the MTL lesioned patients failed to name the old stimuli more quickly than the recombined ones. The recognition performance of the patients was lower than that of the control subjects. However, as shown in Experiment 2, when the words presented in the different old color were replaced with the words present in a new color, the patients could name as quickly and accurately as the normal subjects. The results highlighted the important role of MTL in perceptual priming effects, in the situation when forming associations between the items and its features is needed.