Linguistic and nonlinguistic priming in aphasia

Studies of real-time processing in aphasia suggest that linguistic symptoms may be due to deficits in activation dynamics rather than loss of linguist ic knowledge. To investigate the domain specificity of such processing defi cits, we compared performance by Italian-speaking fluent aphasics, nonfluen t aphasics, and normal controls in a linguistic priming task (grammatical g ender) with their performance in a color-priming task that requires no verb al mediation. Normal or larger than normal color-priming effects were demon strated in both aphasic groups. Gender priming did not reach significance i n either group, even though the patients displayed above-chance sensitivity to gender class and gender agreement in their accuracy scores. The demonst ration of spared gender knowledge despite impaired gender priming underscor es the utility of on-line techniques in the study of aphasia. The demonstra tion of spared color priming suggests that priming deficits in aphasia are either (1) specific to speech and language or (2) specific only to those se nsorimotor and attentional processes that language shares with other nonlin guistic systems. (C) 2001 Academic Press.