NEURAL BASIS OF AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE

手语的研究提供了一个独特的机会，深入了解 语言神经机制的本质，因为手语 使用不同于口语的传输模式。 为了了解语言的神经机制在多大程度上 模态独立性，以及它们受模态约束的程度，我们 自然转向手语，因为通过他们的研究，我们可以开始 来解决语言的大脑组织问题。 我们 将我们创造时空模式数字记录的能力 理论驱动的手语语言学分析 崩溃以及对运动处理的心理物理研究 在四个系列的研究中， 手语的大脑功能 我们研究手语 左侧单侧损伤的聋人手语者的能力 或右脑半球来揭示大脑的本质 视觉手势语言的组织。 结合 手语缺陷和标准化失语症的语言学分析 评估，我们带来承担理论驱动的测试处理 手语的语言结构 另外，我们开始 研究大脑皮层对大脑皮层下 聋人的阅读。 动态视觉运动表征。 我们直接比较语言学 操纵空间位点的脑损伤的签名者与他们的 当它们发挥作用时， 非语言学的 在这样做的时候，我们调查是否有 不同的空间心理表征取决于功能 服从，以及大脑是否尊重这些功能性区别。 快速时间分析专业。 对聋人的研究， 对他们来说，语言处理依赖于视觉感知， 改变刺激，将有助于澄清左半球的作用 时间分析和语言处理专业。 我们 研究脑损伤患者快速时间分析能力 并将这些功能与大脑半球的模式联系起来 专业化的手语和口语。 非语言运动和空间处理专业。 为了 了解手语处理的大脑组织， 知觉基底，我们梳理除了知觉从语言缺陷， 在大脑受损的签名者中， 对语言和动态事件的大脑功能的观点。 我们 扩展聋人手语者的脑特化研究， 非语言空间处理的挑战性和揭示性领域， 动作处理

The study of sign languages offers a unique opportunity for insight into the nature of neural mechanisms for language, since sign languages utilize a transmission modality different from that of spoken languages. To understand the extent to which neural mechanisms for language are modality independent, and the extent to which they are modality-bound, we naturally turn to sign languages because through their study we can begin to solve the problem of brain organization for language in general. We link our ability to create digital records of the spatiotemporal patterns of signing with theoretically driven linguistic analyses of sign language breakdown and with psychophysical studies of motion processing in brain-lesioned signers in four series of studies. Brain Function for Sign Language. We investigate the sign language capacities of deaf signers who have unilateral lesions in either the left or right cerebral hemisphere in order to uncover the nature of brain organization for a visual-gestural language. In conjunction with linguistic analyses of signing deficits and standardized aphasia assessments, we bring to bear theoretically-driven tests for processing linguistic structure in sign language. In addition, we begin investigating the cortical representation of the processes underlying reading in deaf signers. Dynamic Visuo-Motor Representations. We directly compare the linguistic manipulation of spatial loci by brain-lesioned signers with their capacities for manipulating these same loci when they function nonlinguistically. In so doing, we investigate whether there am differing mental representations of space depending upon the function subserved, and whether the brain honors these functional distinctions. Specialization for Rapid Temporal Analysis. Studies with deaf signers, for whom language processing relies on the perception of visually changing stimuli, will help clarify the role of left hemisphere specialization in temporal analysis and language processing. We investigate capacities for rapid temporal analysis in brain-lesioned signers and relate such function to patterns of hemispheric specialization for signed and spoken language. Specialization for Non-Language Motion and Spatial Processing. In order to understand brain organization for sign language processing and for its perceptual substrate, we tease apart perceptual from linguistic deficits in brain-lesioned signers in ways that should also provide a new perspective on brain function for language and for dynamic events. We extend the investigation of cerebral specialization in deaf signers for nonlanguage spatial processing to the challenging and revealing domain of motion processing.