Agnes Villwock, "From written words to signed sentences: Behavioral findings and neural correlates of linguistic processing in deaf sign language users"

Agnes Villwock

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Rehabilitationswissenschaften

From written words to signed sentences: Behavioral findings and neural correlates of linguistic processing in deaf sign language users

Abstract: In this talk, I will present experimental and neuroscientific data focusing on language processing in deaf signers and hearing controls. While language experiences in the Deaf Community vary highly, deaf signers are almost universally bimodal-bilingual users of a signed language and a spoken language, the latter often in its written form. Understanding how two languages that do not share the same modality are processed during development and adulthood is crucial to identifying the important factors of successful language acquisition and literacy. The results of my work indicate that co-activation of signs and written words can be observed in deaf adults as well as during development. Concerning the underlying neural basis of sign language processing, I will present data which indicate that – as long as an individual experiences a typical acquisition of a first language – syntactic processing is not altered by the sensory-motor channel of language reception and expression.