Intact cross-modality text-specific repetition priming in patients with Alzheimer's disease

This study was aimed at investigating the basic mechanisms of the normal re petition priming evoked by text re-reading procedures in Alzheimer's diseas e (AD) patients (Monti, Gabrieli, Wilson, & Reminger, 1994; Monti et al., 1 997). For this purpose, we contrasted the reading facilitation elicited by previous reading or listening to a text in a sample of AD patients and a gr oup of age-matched normal controls. Consistent with previous evidence in no rmal undergraduates (Levy & Kirsner, 1989), previous listening to a text de creased the successive reading time of the same text (cross-modality primin g). However, the reading facilitation elicited by previous reading of the s ame text (within-modality priming) was significantly larger than the facili tation evoked by previous listening. Compared to normal controls, AD patien ts showed intact cross-modality and within-modality priming. These data are discussed in the light of alternative hypotheses regarding the basic mecha nisms of impaired and spared repetition priming in degenerative demented pa tients.