Nonverbal Communication Processing in Deaf Adults: An Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-Analysis.

ABSTRACT: Background/Objectives: Hearing loss affects spoken language processing and leads to cortical reorganization in sensory systems. While neuroimaging research has explored cross-modal plasticity in visual language processing, there is a need to identify brain activation patterns consistently activated across different nonverbal communication tasks in deaf individuals. We hypothesized that deaf adults would show convergent activation across studies in visual and auditory cortices during nonverbal communication processing compared to typical hearing adults. Methods: To test this, we conducted an Activation Likelihood Estimation analysis of 14 neuroimaging studies using different visual linguistic stimuli and tasks in adults with prelingual deafness and age-matched hearing controls

SUBMITTER: Mo S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12730276 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature