The inferior frontal gyrus and phonological processing: an investigation using rTMS.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) offers a powerful new technique for investigating the distinct contributions of the cortical language areas. We have used this method to examine the role of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in phonological processing and verbal working memory. Functional neuroimaging studies have implicated the posterior part of the left IFG in both phonological decision making and subvocal rehearsal mechanisms, but imaging is a correlational method and it is therefore necessary to determine whether this region is essential for such processes.

Chromatic priming in hemianopic visual fields.

In three monkeys made hemianopic by unilateral striate cortical ablation, in one normal monkey and in a human hemianope (GY), we measured reaction times to chromatic targets presented in the normal hemifield as a function of prior chromatic primes in the blind field. The first of our three tasks showed an unspecific priming effect in that the colour of the here unpredictive prime was irrelevant. However, when contingencies were changed in the second task so that the prime was usually valid, its colour did significantly influence reaction times in two of the hemianopic monkeys as well as in the human subject.

Auditory chronostasis: hanging on the telephone.

The perception of time can be illusory: we have all waited anxiously for important seconds to tick away slowly at the end of a football game and have experienced the truth of the adage "time flies when you're having fun." One illusion of time experience that has recently been investigated, the apparent slowing of the movement of the second hand on the clock when one first looks at it, has been termed "chronostasis," and it has been suggested that the effect is unique to vision and is dependent on eye movements. We sought to test whether the effect is really unique to vision or whether it can also be produced with auditory stimuli.

Prime-sight in a blindsight subject.

A subject (D.B.) who had no experience of visual stimuli in a field defect caused by visual cortex damage but could discriminate them ('blindsight') nevertheless reported visible after-images of the stimuli when they were turned off ('prime-sight').