Lexical access from spectrum? Phonetic properties of proper names and common nouns in German and Mandarin Chinese State of the art of phonetic language aptitude linking phonetic as well as phonological models to empirical neuroimaging (neurolinguistic) research Phonetic convergence as a paradigm of showing phonetic talent in foreign language acquisition. Institute for Natural Language Processing, Repeated masked semantic priming with new results: ERPs of a negative semantic priming effect. Space, time, and the use of language: An

■ Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have found that distinct neural systems may mediate perceptual category learning under implicit and explicit learning conditions. In these previous studies, however, different stimulus-encoding processes may have been associated with implicit versus explicit learning. The present design was aimed at decoupling the influence of these factors on the recruitment of alternate neural systems. Consistent with previous reports, following incidental learning in a dot-pattern classification task, participants showed decreased neural activity in occipital visual cortex (extrastriate region

Prof. Dr. Josef KesslerTo AnnaBecause memory and sensations are so uncertain, so biased, we always rely on a certain reality – call it alternate reality – to prove the reality of events. To what extent facts we recognize as such really are as they seem, and to what extent these are facts merely because we label them as such, is an impossible distinction to draw. Therefore, in order to pin down reality as reality, we need another reality to relativize the first. Yet that other reality requires a third reality to serve as its grounding. An endless chain is created within our consciousness, and it is the maintenance of this chain which produces the sensation that we are actually here, that we ourselves exist. But something can happen to sever that chain and we are at a loss. What is real? Is reality on this side of the break in the chain? Or over there, on the other side? Haruki Murakami: South of the Border, West of the Sun translated by Philip Gabriel (Vintage, London) Acknowledgements I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the confiding and unhesitant cooperation of the participating patients and their relatives and friends. This work would have failed without their loyal collaboration during and far beyond the test sessions, and neuroscientific patient work