Neurological differences.


Aphasia studies show clearly that both spoken and signed languages are controlled in the left hemisphere. Some recent brain research on normal subjects using modern techniques such as positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging are suggestive of possible differences in brain organization related to sign language. In particular, recent results find right hemisphere involvement in sign language processing by deaf and hearing native signers. One research group used regional cerebral blood flow and positron emission tomography to examine sign and spoken language representation in hearing native signers (hearing people born to deaf parents who learned sign language as a first language). The two techniques showed bilateral activation (activation in both cerebral hemispheres) for both modalities. Another research group, using event related potentials, similarly found bilateral activation for both modalities, for both deaf and hearing native signers. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, they also found bilateral activation for processing ASL by deaf and hearing native signers; however, they did not find bilateral representation for English. In these studies, the Classical left hemisphere regions have been implicatedfor processing sign language, but in addition, some areas of the right hemisphere have also shown activity. Recall that patients with right hemisphere lesions also showed some comprehension deficits, indicating right hemisphere involvement in processing sign language. If it is true that the right hemisphere is involved in sign language processing, it will be important to consider why there might be such a difference between sign and oral languages (or between language users with and without early exposure to sign language). Certainly, the well-established fact that the right hemisphere is crucial for human visuo-spatial processing in general may play a role in explaining these findings. These possibilities overlap, but there are distinctions which are important for theoretical models of language. Clearly, more research in this area is essential.

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