Neural associations between fingerspelling, print, and signs: An ERP priming study with deaf readers

Fingerspelling is a leading predictor of reading ability for deaf people who use a signed language, but few neuroimaging studies have examined how it supports reading. We used event-related potentials to investigate how fingerspelled words prime printed words. Twenty-four skilled deaf adult readers completed a Go/No-Go task while viewing printed English word targets following related and unrelated primes in one of three conditions: printed English words, American Sign Language (ASL) signs, and fingerspelled words. N400 priming effects were strong across all three conditions. Early N400 effects were similar for printed word primes and fingerspelled word primes, suggesting shared orthographic representations. Late N400 effects were strongest for printed word primes, reflecting less effortful processing when primes and targets were in the same printed modality. These findings provide evidence for cross-language and cross-modal priming between fingerspelled and printed words and underscore the importance of fingerspelling in developing word representations for skilled reading.