Repetition effects for words and nonwords as indexed by event-related fMRI: A preliminary study

We have previously shown differential effects of stimulus familiarity on th e repetition-related responses in right fusiform cortex to both faces and s ymbols. Repetition of familiar stimuli produced a response decrease, wherea s repetition of unfamiliar stimuli produced a response increase. In the pre sent experiment, we used words and nonwords as the familiar and unfamiliar stimuli respectively. In this case, the only fusiform region showing the fa miliarity-by-repetition interaction was in anterior left fusiform. This lef t-lateralisation of the fusiform interaction is consistent with our hypothe sis that these repetition-related effects occur in the same regions respons ible for perceptual recognition of familiar stimuli.