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The Processing of Biologically Plausible and Implausible forms in American Sign Language: Evidence for Perceptual
Diogo Almeida1, David Poeppel2, David Corina3
1Division of Sciences, Psychology, New York University - Abu Dhabi., Computational Research Building, 167, P.O. Box 129188, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Language, Cognition and Neuroscience
|May 3, 2016
Summary
Sign language users process visual language information efficiently. Early brain responses detect impossible sign articulations, showing visual language processing is tuned like spoken language.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Linguistics
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- The human brain rapidly distinguishes speech from other sounds.
- Sign languages are complex visual languages requiring sophisticated processing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate visual language processing in sign language users.
- To determine if early visual cortex responses are sensitive to articulatory constraints in signs.
Main Methods:
- Combined psychophysics and magnetoencephalography (MEG).
- Presented American Sign Language (ASL) signs to deaf signers.
- Analyzed early visual cortical responses to valid and invalid sign articulations.
Main Results:
- Early visual responses showed specific modulations to impossible sign articulations.
- Participants demonstrated increased perceptual sensitivity to anatomical incongruities.
- Neural data suggest expectation-driven assessment of representational integrity.
Conclusions:
- Auditory deprivation and language experience shape visual processing of human form.
- Perceptual tuning for language discrimination extends to visual sign languages.
- The brain efficiently processes visual linguistic information, similar to auditory speech.
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