Superior temporal activation as a function of linguistic knowledge: insights from deaf native signers who speechread.

ABSTRACT: Studies of spoken and signed language processing reliably show involvement of the posterior superior temporal cortex. This region is also reliably activated by observation of meaningless oral and manual actions. In this study we directly compared the extent to which activation in posterior superior temporal cortex is modulated by linguistic knowledge irrespective of differences in language form. We used a novel cross-linguistic approach in two groups of volunteers who differed in their language experience. Using fMRI, we compared deaf native signers of British Sign Language (BSL), who were also proficient speechreaders of English (i.e., two languages) with hearing people who could speechread English, but knew no BSL (i.e., one language). Both groups were presented with BSL signs and silent

SUBMITTER: Capek CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3398390 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature