Contributions of right inferior temporal-occipital cortex to visual word and non-word priming.

Little is known about the neural substrates of indirect forms of memory such as priming. Electrophysiological (ERP) and behavioral data were recorded from controls and three patients with damage in the right parahippocampal and lingual gyri, with variable extension into posterior hippocampus and striate/extrastriate cortex. Visually presented words and non-words were repeated after one of three delays in a lexical decision task. The late positive ERP deflection related to stimulus repetition was diminished at all scalp sites, suggesting dysfunction in a neural system associated with priming. The patients also failed to show significant reaction time priming at intermediate and long delays. These results demonstrate the importance of right inferior temporal-occipital cortex for ERP and behavioral manifestations of verbal priming.