neurobiology

Developing an fMRI localizer for German Sign Language (DGS)

Introduction: Functional localizers in fMRI enable the precise and participant-specific identification of voxels that respond to a particular cognitive function or task of interest (e.g., Kanwisher et al., 1997; Saxe et al., 2006) and have been …

The core language network at rest: Differences in resting-state functional connectivity between deaf signers and hearing non-signers

Introduction: The major networks implicated in language processing can also be discerned using resting-state MRI and several studies have used data-driven approaches to study whole-brain resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) in deaf signers. …

Functional neuroanatomy of sign language production: An Activation Likelihood Estimation meta-analysis

Introduction: Sign languages are natural languages in the visual-kinesthetic modality (Kusters et al., 2020) which use the hands, body, facial expressions like eyebrow movement and eye gaze, mouthing, and mouth gestures as articulators (Hodge, 2020). …

Language-related cortical pathways in deaf signers: Core invariance and modality-specific variability

Introduction: Language processing in the adult neurotypical brain is subserved by several white-matter pathways which connect inferior frontal, temporal, and parietal language-relevant cortical regions. Here, we used diffusion-weighted MRI to compare …

Neurobiological basis of sign language

One of the major insights of modern linguistics has been that the human capacity for language is not bound to speech but may also be externalized and perceived in the visuo-spatial modality of sign language. Linguistic analysis has demonstrated that …

How supramodal is the language network? The view from sign language

One of the major insights of modern linguistics has been that the human capacity for language is not bound to speech but may also be externalized and perceived in the visuo-spatial modality of sign language. Neuroimaging evidence indicates that …

Neurobiology of spoken, written, and sign language processing

The human capacity for language is best described as a biologically determined computational mechanism yielding an unbounded array of hierarchically structured expressions and should not be conflated with notions of “speech” or “communication”. The …