The impact of early language exposure on the neural system supporting language in deaf and hearing adults
Deaf late signers provide a unique perspective on the impact of impoverished early language exposure on the neurobiology of language: insights that cannot be gained from research with hearing people alone. Here we contrast the effect of age of sign language acquisition in hearing and congenitally de...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2020-04-01
|
| Series: | NeuroImage |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105381191931002X |
| _version_ | 1818844422627917824 |
|---|---|
| author | Tae Twomey Cathy J. Price Dafydd Waters Mairéad MacSweeney |
| author_facet | Tae Twomey Cathy J. Price Dafydd Waters Mairéad MacSweeney |
| author_sort | Tae Twomey |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Deaf late signers provide a unique perspective on the impact of impoverished early language exposure on the neurobiology of language: insights that cannot be gained from research with hearing people alone. Here we contrast the effect of age of sign language acquisition in hearing and congenitally deaf adults to examine the potential impact of impoverished early language exposure on the neural systems supporting a language learnt later in life. We collected fMRI data from deaf and hearing proficient users (N = 52) of British Sign Language (BSL), who learnt BSL either early (native) or late (after the age of 15 years) whilst they watched BSL sentences or strings of meaningless nonsense signs.There was a main effect of age of sign language acquisition (late > early) across deaf and hearing signers in the occipital segment of the left intraparietal sulcus. This finding suggests that late learners of sign language may rely on visual processing more than early learners, when processing both linguistic and nonsense sign input – regardless of hearing status. Region-of-interest analyses in the posterior superior temporal cortices (STC) showed an effect of age of sign language acquisition that was specific to deaf signers. In the left posterior STC, activation in response to signed sentences was greater in deaf early signers than deaf late signers. Importantly, responses in the left posterior STC in hearing early and late signers did not differ, and were similar to those observed in deaf early signers. These data lend further support to the argument that robust early language experience, whether signed or spoken, is necessary for left posterior STC to show a ‘native-like’ response to a later learnt language. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T05:13:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8017ccc731714ac297f0e1d78d5830aa |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1095-9572 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T05:13:31Z |
| publishDate | 2020-04-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | NeuroImage |
| spelling | doaj.art-8017ccc731714ac297f0e1d78d5830aa2022-12-21T20:34:45ZengElsevierNeuroImage1095-95722020-04-01209116411The impact of early language exposure on the neural system supporting language in deaf and hearing adultsTae Twomey0Cathy J. Price1Dafydd Waters2Mairéad MacSweeney3Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, WC1N 3AZ, UK; Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre, University College London, WC1H 0PD, UKWellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, WC1N 3BG, UKInstitute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, WC1N 3AZ, UKInstitute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, WC1N 3AZ, UK; Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre, University College London, WC1H 0PD, UK; Corresponding author. Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AZ, UK.Deaf late signers provide a unique perspective on the impact of impoverished early language exposure on the neurobiology of language: insights that cannot be gained from research with hearing people alone. Here we contrast the effect of age of sign language acquisition in hearing and congenitally deaf adults to examine the potential impact of impoverished early language exposure on the neural systems supporting a language learnt later in life. We collected fMRI data from deaf and hearing proficient users (N = 52) of British Sign Language (BSL), who learnt BSL either early (native) or late (after the age of 15 years) whilst they watched BSL sentences or strings of meaningless nonsense signs.There was a main effect of age of sign language acquisition (late > early) across deaf and hearing signers in the occipital segment of the left intraparietal sulcus. This finding suggests that late learners of sign language may rely on visual processing more than early learners, when processing both linguistic and nonsense sign input – regardless of hearing status. Region-of-interest analyses in the posterior superior temporal cortices (STC) showed an effect of age of sign language acquisition that was specific to deaf signers. In the left posterior STC, activation in response to signed sentences was greater in deaf early signers than deaf late signers. Importantly, responses in the left posterior STC in hearing early and late signers did not differ, and were similar to those observed in deaf early signers. These data lend further support to the argument that robust early language experience, whether signed or spoken, is necessary for left posterior STC to show a ‘native-like’ response to a later learnt language.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105381191931002XfMRIAge of language acquisitionSign languageDeafPlasticityNonsense sign |
| spellingShingle | Tae Twomey Cathy J. Price Dafydd Waters Mairéad MacSweeney The impact of early language exposure on the neural system supporting language in deaf and hearing adults NeuroImage fMRI Age of language acquisition Sign language Deaf Plasticity Nonsense sign |
| title | The impact of early language exposure on the neural system supporting language in deaf and hearing adults |
| title_full | The impact of early language exposure on the neural system supporting language in deaf and hearing adults |
| title_fullStr | The impact of early language exposure on the neural system supporting language in deaf and hearing adults |
| title_full_unstemmed | The impact of early language exposure on the neural system supporting language in deaf and hearing adults |
| title_short | The impact of early language exposure on the neural system supporting language in deaf and hearing adults |
| title_sort | impact of early language exposure on the neural system supporting language in deaf and hearing adults |
| topic | fMRI Age of language acquisition Sign language Deaf Plasticity Nonsense sign |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105381191931002X |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT taetwomey theimpactofearlylanguageexposureontheneuralsystemsupportinglanguageindeafandhearingadults AT cathyjprice theimpactofearlylanguageexposureontheneuralsystemsupportinglanguageindeafandhearingadults AT dafyddwaters theimpactofearlylanguageexposureontheneuralsystemsupportinglanguageindeafandhearingadults AT maireadmacsweeney theimpactofearlylanguageexposureontheneuralsystemsupportinglanguageindeafandhearingadults AT taetwomey impactofearlylanguageexposureontheneuralsystemsupportinglanguageindeafandhearingadults AT cathyjprice impactofearlylanguageexposureontheneuralsystemsupportinglanguageindeafandhearingadults AT dafyddwaters impactofearlylanguageexposureontheneuralsystemsupportinglanguageindeafandhearingadults AT maireadmacsweeney impactofearlylanguageexposureontheneuralsystemsupportinglanguageindeafandhearingadults |