Deficient intentional access to semantic knowledge in patients with severe closed-head injury

被引:12
作者
Perri, R
Carlesimo, GA
Loasses, A
Caltagirone, C
机构
[1] IRCCS S Lucia, I-00179 Rome, Italy
[2] Univ Roma Tor Vergata, Neurol Clin, I-00173 Rome, Italy
关键词
closed head injury; semantic memory; priming;
D O I
10.1016/S0010-9452(08)70525-2
中图分类号
B84 [心理学]; C [社会科学总论]; Q98 [人类学];
学科分类号
03 ; 0303 ; 030303 ; 04 ; 0402 ;
摘要
Patients after severe closed-head injury (CHI) demonstrate reduced ability to spontaneously utilize semantic memory during word-list memory tests and when requested to answer questions regarding general knowledge. However, they show normal lexical facilitation in both automatic and intentional semantic priming paradigms. The present study was aimed at investigating two alternative hypotheses a) that the deficit in semantic processing after CHIT is the result of impaired access to an otherwise normal semantic system or b) that it reflects a loss of knowledge from a deteriorated semantic store. For this purpose, the performance of 15 CHI patients on an automatic Semantic Priming paradigm and on tests of Picture Naming and Semantic Judgment were compared to those of 14 normal controls (NC). Although CHI patients' reaction times were significantly slower than those of NCs, the semantic priming effect was comparable in the two groups. Instead, CHI patients performed significantly worse than NCs in the naming and semantic judgment casks. These results provide evidence that CHI patients access semantic memory automatically at a normal rate. However, when the task is more demanding in terms of processing requests, then CHI patients' performance becomes defective.
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页码:213 / 225
页数:13
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