Visual object recognition is generally known to be facilitated when targets are preceded by the same or relevant stimuli. For written words, however, the beneficial effect of priming can be reversed when primes and targets share initial syllables (e.g., "boca" and "bono"). Using fMRI, the present study explored neuroanatomical correlates of this negative syllabic priming. In each trial, participants made semantic judgment about a centrally presented target, which was preceded by a masked prime flashed either to the left or right visual field. We observed that the inhibitory priming during reading was associated with a left-lateralized effect of repetition enhancement in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), rather than repetition suppression in the ventral visual region previously associated with facilitatory behavioral priming. We further performed a second fMRI experiment using a classical whole-word repetition priming paradigm with the same hemifield procedure and task instruction, and obtained well-known effects of repetition suppression in the left occipito-temporal cortex. These results therefore suggest that the left IFG constitutes a fast word processing system distinct from the posterior visual word-form system and that the directions of repetition effects can change with intrinsic properties of stimuli even when participants' cognitive and attentional states are kept constant.

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Here, we present a very unusual case of orbital apex schwannoma with a high titer of proteinase 3 antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (PR3-ANCA). A 67-year-old man presented with a 3-month history of double vision. Radiological examinations revealed a mass lesion at the left orbital apex, and laboratory examination revealed a high titer of PR3-ANCA, of 49.1 U/mL (reference range<2.0). After the surgery, the lesion was histologically diagnosed as schwannoma, and the PR3-ANCA titer decreased to 8.4 U/m. Although making a correct diagnosis of orbital apex schwannoma may be difficult due to the need to differentiate from granulomatosis with polyangiitis when PR3-ANCA serum levels are elevated, careful examination of the radiological findings may aid the diagnosis.

A 55-year-old patient was admitted for variceal treatment, a complication of chronic portal hypertension and liver cirrhosis. Imaging studies revealed prominent duodenal varices, the pancreaticoduodenal vein as its afferent pathway, a drainer vessel into the inferior vena cava, and a paraumbilical vein. We successfully performed complete obliteration of the varix, including its afferent and efferent vessels, via the paraumbilical vein approach.