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Initiatives & Projectsproject 5 -- Funtional imaging studies of sign language developmentVLAS 5: Functional imaging studies of sign language development for signs and sentences (Corina, Eden, Hauser, Bavelier, Emmorey & Singleton):
We have developed an implicit sign recognition paradigm similar one used to study reading in pediatric and adult studies. The paradigm involves the presentation of age-appropriate single signs and requires the subject to judge whether the sign is produced with one or two hands. Control conditions include judgments of hand use in non-linguistic and non-meaningful “self-grooming” gestures, static profiles of a signer (luminance control) and fixation. This task is easy for a variety of ages without requiring explicit metalinguistic assessments. Preliminary results show this paradigm is effective in activating language cortex in adults. We plan to extent the use of this paradigm in a cross sectional study of deaf signing children (ages 7-16) and adults. In addition we will develop an age-appropriate ASL sentence comprehension task to be employed in the same deaf signing children (ages 7-16) and adults. In this task subjects are shown ASL sentences and are asked to decide if the sentences make sense or not (e.x. BOY KISS GIRL, MAN FEED PENCIL). This paradigm permits us to explore both the development of sign comprehension and provides the first systematic approach to provide insights into the processing demand required for sentences using a common form of depiction. Extensive development and pilot testing of material will be required to achieve balanced sentence types that are age appropriate. Related Initiatives:
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