Cortical representation of predicate processing in American Sign Language.

Sign languages: Contribution to neurolinguistics from cross-modal research

“…ASL acquisition data has further shown that these perceptual-kinematic features are relevant for infants acquiring sign language (Brentari et al in press). Finally, an fMRI study of ASL verb processing showed increased neuronal activity in superior temporal gyrus, precuneus, and cerebellum during the processing of visually presented predicate signs containing a rapid deceleration at the end of the sign, as compared to predicates without such kinematic properties (Malaia, Ranaweera, Tamer, Wilbur, and Talavage 2009). Given that some of these findings are strikingly similar to neural activations found during visual scene segmentation in hearing populations (Zacks et al 2001), such results indicate that visuo-kinematic perceptual features of events might undergo grammaticalization in SLs, and are subsequently processed as linguistic distinctions by Deaf signers.…”