Repetition enhancement and perceptual processing of visual word form

The current study investigated the cerebral basis of word perceptual repetition priming with fMRI during a letter detection task that manipulated the familiarity of perceptual word form and the number of repetitions. Some neuroimaging studies have reported increases, instead of decreases, in brain activations (called “repetition enhancement”) associated with repetition priming of unfamiliar stimuli which have been interpreted as the creation of new perceptual representations for unfamiliar items. According to this interpretation, several repetitions of unfamiliar items would then be necessary for the repetition priming to occur, a hypothesis not explicitly tested in prior studies. In the present study, using a letter detection task on briefly flashed words, we explored the effect of familiarity on brain response for word visual perceptual priming using both words with usual (i.e., familiar) and unusual (i.e., unfamiliar) font, presented up to four times for stimuli with unusual font. This allows potential changes in the brain responses for unfamiliar items to be assessed over several repetitions, i.e., repetition enhancement to suppression. Our results reveal significant increases of activity in the bilateral occipital areas related to repetition of words in both familiar and unfamiliar conditions. Our findings support the sharpening hypothesis, showing a lack of cerebral economy with repetition when the task requires the processing of all word features, whatever the familiarity of the material, and emphasize the influence of the nature of stimuli processing on its neuronal manifestation.