Lin Chun-Yu, Ryan Lee
Cognition and Neuroimaging Laboratory, Department of Psychology, P.O. Box 210068, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0068, USA.
Neuroimage. 2007 Nov 15;38(3):589-603. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.08.004. Epub 2007 Aug 17.
The aim of the present study was to examine whether priming can occur due to recent perceptual processing of the same stimulus with minimal influence from conceptual process and also to investigate its underlying neural mechanisms using fMRI. Words were presented in mirror orientation in a word identification priming task. The presentation durations of the primes were titrated individually so that each participant could only identify approximately half of the primes, while the remainder disappeared before participants could identify the meaning of the word. A substantial behavioral priming effect was found when these unidentified primes were repeated later, suggesting that recent exposure to the perceptual processes without accessing the meaning is sufficient to prime later identical processes of the same repeated stimuli. Imaging data showed significant repetition suppression in several brain regions mediating perceptual, but not semantic or conceptual, processes. Together, our findings are consistent with the general predictions of transfer appropriate processing (TAP) and the component process view of priming, positing that priming is a function of more efficient cognitive processes that are repeated from study to test, and this increased efficiency is reflected in repetition suppression effects evident on fMRI.
本研究的目的是检验启动效应是否会因近期对相同刺激的感知加工而产生，且受概念加工的影响最小，并使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究其潜在的神经机制。在单词识别启动任务中，单词以镜像方向呈现。启动刺激的呈现持续时间针对每个参与者进行了单独调整，以便每个参与者只能识别大约一半的启动刺激，而其余的在参与者能够识别单词含义之前就消失了。当这些未被识别的启动刺激随后被重复时，发现了显著的行为启动效应，这表明近期对感知过程的接触而无需理解其含义就足以启动对相同重复刺激的后续相同过程。成像数据显示，在几个介导感知过程而非语义或概念过程的脑区中存在显著的重复抑制。总之，我们的研究结果与迁移适当加工（TAP）的一般预测以及启动效应的成分过程观点一致，即启动效应是从学习到测试重复进行的更高效认知过程的一种功能，这种效率的提高反映在功能磁共振成像上明显的重复抑制效应中。
