title: Perceptual encoding of fingerspelled and printed alphabet by deaf signers: an fMRI study.
abstract: We measured brain activation during the perception of fingerspelled letters, printed letters, and abstract shapes (control condition) in six congenitally, profoundly deaf signers and six normal hearing subjects. Normal hearing subjects showed essentially extrastriate activation in the fingerspelled letters and printed letters conditions whereas deaf subjects showed activation of a broader network in printed letters and fingerspelled conditions, comprising supplementary frontal and posterior areas, and the supramarginal gyrus (Brodmann Area 6). These results suggest that, on one hand, different cerebral areas in deaf and hearing subjects mediate processing of printed letters and, on the other hand, common cerebral areas are activated in deaf signers when they are engaged in processing fingerspelled or printed letters.
authors.affiliation: Centre d'Etudes de Physiologie Appliquée, CNRS-Université Louis Pasteur, 12 rue Goethe, 6700 Strasbourg, France. andre.dufour@c-strasbourg.fr
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dufour
authors.forename: Renaud
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Brochard
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Després
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Scheiber
authors.forename: Christel
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Robert
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D003638:Deafness; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D010465:Perception; D012813:Sign Language