Working Memory for Signs with Poor Visual Resolution: fMRI Evidence of Reorganization of Auditory Cortex in Deaf Signers.

ABSTRACT: Stimulus degradation adds to working memory load during speech processing. We investigated whether this applies to sign processing and, if so, whether the mechanism implicates secondary auditory cortex. We conducted an fMRI experiment where 16 deaf early signers (DES) and 22 hearing non-signers performed a sign-based n-back task with three load levels and stimuli presented at high and low resolution. We found decreased behavioral performance with increasing load and decreasing visual resolution, but the neurobiological mechanisms involved differed between the two manipulations and did so for both groups. Importantly, while the load manipulation was, as predicted, accompanied by activation in the frontoparietal working memory network, the resolution manipulation resulted in temporal and occ

SUBMITTER: Andin J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8196262 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature