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。正是这种能力使得知识和文化在人类社会内得以传播。制定干预措施需要对人类语言能力进行适当的描述，这些干预措施可用于补救那些未能实现或丧失全面语言行为（例如有效的人际交流、阅读、写作等）能力的个人。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长足的进步。这些发现催生了一系列有效的教育和临床项目来改善语言行为。然而，手语领域缺乏同等的知识。这项研究的长期目标是开发一个源自行为和功能脑成像研究的综合手语处理神经认知模型。这样的模型具有实际的教育价值；它将指导制定有效的战略和方案，旨在改善来自不同语言背景的聋人的特定语言行为。它还将有利于基础科学，提供关于非基于语音的人类通信系统如何与感觉、运动和知觉认知系统交互的规范，并另外解释感觉剥夺和早期语言体验如何影响神经系统的发展。最后，该模型将通过提供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，使对人类语言基础的功能神经专业化模型感兴趣的认知科学家受益。 手语处理神经认知模型的开发需要多个方面的知识，因为手语处理位于语言、运动和视觉处理领域的交叉点。我们寻求识别手语识别和感知背后的表征和过程，并了解它们与口语、人类动作/运动处理和视觉对象/动作处理中使用的表征和过程有何相似或不同。 当前的申请建立在我们之前资助的发现的基础上，并继续提出有关基于形式的“语音”属性对美国手语的词汇识别和产生的影响的基本问题。此外，我们之前的发现迫使我们进一步考虑符号处理和人类动作处理之间的神经和功能关系，以及语言和手动手势能力之间的神经关系。最后，我们研究视觉感知和注意力因素如何介导手语识别。 我们提出的测试适合对母语和非母语聋哑手语者以及手语和手语幼稚听力受试者进行测试，使我们能够确定观察到的特定效果在多大程度上反映了语言经验、听觉剥夺，或者反映了更普遍的、独立于语言的感知过程。

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.