Impaired morphological processing: insights from multiple sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disease characterised by damage affecting large bundles of white matter fibres. Morphological segmentation complex words (e.g. walked) into stems (walk) and suffixes (∼ed) thought to depend on intact matter. We tested the hypothesis that Arabic speaking patients with MS may lose ability segment morphologically in primed lexical decision task using word pairs shared either root semantic relationship (+R + S, e.g. “AnzAl”–“nuzwl” lowering-landing), without semantics (+R–S, “rtAbp”–“trtyb” monotony-tidying up),a (–R “xyr”–“nEmp” good-grace), or phonological Phon, “mEdn”–“mEAnd” mineral-stubborn). While healthy controls showed priming regardless inhibition phonology, facilitation S –R S), phonology Phon). These findings are used adjudicate three contending models processing.