Phonological and Visual Processing of Sign Language

描述（由申请人提供）：理解和产生语言的能力是人类认知的一个决定性特征。正是这种能力使知识和文化在人类社会中得以传播。对人类语言能力的适当描述是开发干预措施的必要条件，这些干预措施可用于纠正那些未能达到或丧失各种语言行为能力的个体（例如，有效的人际沟通、阅读、写作等）。认知心理学家在理解口语使用背后的功能和神经机制方面取得了巨大的进步。这些发现导致了一系列有效的教育和临床项目来改善语言行为。然而，在手语领域缺乏相应的知识。本研究的长期目标是在行为和功能脑成像研究的基础上建立一个全面的手语处理神经认知模型。这种模式具有实际的教育价值；它将指导有效的策略和项目的发展，以改善来自不同语言背景的聋人的特定语言行为。这也将有利于基础科学，为非语言的人类交流系统如何与感觉、运动和感知认知系统接口提供规范，并进一步解释感觉剥夺和早期语言经验如何影响神经系统的发展。最后，这个模型将使对人类语言的功能性神经特化模型感兴趣的认知科学家受益，因为它提供了对语言如何从基于手势的人类行为的编码中产生的明确理解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ability to comprehend and produce language stands as a defining characteristic of human cognition. It is this ability that enables the transfer of knowledge and culture within human society. A proper characterization of the human capacity for language is required for the development of interventions which may be used to remediate those individuals who have failed to achieve, or who have lost competence in, a full range of language behaviors (e.g., effective interpersonal communication, reading, writing, etc.). Cognitive psychologists have made great strides in understanding the functional and neural mechanisms underlying the use of spoken language. These findings have led to a wide range of effective educational and clinical programs for improving language behaviors. However, equivalent knowledge in the domain of signed languages is lacking. The long-term objective of this research is to develop a comprehensive neurocognitive model of sign language processing derived from behavioral and functional brain-imaging studies. Such a model would have practical educational value; it would guide the development of effective strategies and programs targeted toward improving specific language behaviors in deaf individuals who come from a variety of language backgrounds. It would also benefit basic science, providing specification as to how a non-speech based human communication system interfaces with sensory, motor and perceptual cognitive systems, and additionally explaining how sensory deprivation and early language experience impacts the development of neural systems. Finally, this model would benefit cognitive scientists interested in models of the functional neural specialization underlying human language by providing explicit understanding of how language may arise from the codification of manual-gesture based human actions. The development of a neurocognitive model of sign language processing will require knowledge from several fronts, as sign language processing lies at the intersection of linguistic, motor and visual processing domains. We seek to identify the representations and processes that underlie sign language recognition and perception, and understand how these are similar to or differ from representation and processes that are used in the service of spoken language, human action/motor processing and visual object/action processing. The current application builds upon findings from our previous grant and continues to ask basic questions concerning the influence of form-based "phonological" properties on the lexical recognition and production of American Sign Language. In addition, our previous findings force us to further consider the neural and functional relationships between sign processing and human action processing and the neural relationships between language and manual-gestural abilities. Finally, we examine how visual perceptual and attentional factors may mediate sign language recognition. We propose tests that are amenable to testing with native and non-native deaf signers and signing and sign-naive hearing subjects, allowing us to determine the degree to which the specific effects observed reflect linguistic experiences, auditory deprivation, or reflect more general, language independent, perceptual processes.