Priming between modalities in normal aging and dementia

Soledad Ballesteros, CEEN Research Institute UNED

Abstract
Previous studies have shown that the perceptual representations of visual and haptic objects that mediate repetition priming are not modality specific (Reales & Ballesteros, 1999). Complete cross-modal facilitation between both modalities was found in young adults. More recently, we have reported (Ballesteros & Reales, 2004) complete haptic priming in normal young and older healthy adults and in Alzheimer´s disease (AD) patients. However, the influence in priming of changing modalities in normal and pathological aging has not been investigated. In this study we tested the hypothesis that cross-modal priming between vision and touch exists in normal aging and AD patients because implicit memory depends on extraestriates areas preserved in these groups. Results from these studies will be discussed in terms of the memory systems account.

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