title: On the temporal dynamics of sign production: An ERP study in Catalan Sign Language (LSC).
abstract: This study investigates the temporal dynamics of sign production and how particular aspects of the signed modality influence the early stages of lexical access. To that end, we explored the electrophysiological correlates associated to sign frequency and iconicity in a picture signing task in a group of bimodal bilinguals. Moreover, a subset of the same participants was tested in the same task but naming the pictures instead. Our results revealed that both frequency and iconicity influenced lexical access in sign production. At the ERP level, iconicity effects originated very early in the course of signing (while absent in the spoken modality), suggesting a stronger activation of the semantic properties for iconic signs. Moreover, frequency effects were modulated by iconicity, suggesting that lexical access in signed language is determined by the iconic properties of the signs. These results support the idea that lexical access is sensitive to the same phenomena in word and sign production, but its time-course is modulated by particular aspects of the modality in which a lexical item will be finally articulated.
authors: Center of Brain and Cognition, CBC, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain; Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS and Université d'Aix-Marseille, Marseille, France. Electronic address: baus.cristina@gmail.com.
authors: Cristina
authors: C
authors: Baus
authors: Center of Brain and Cognition, CBC, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain; Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: costalbert@gmail.com.
authors: Albert
authors: A
authors: Costa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012660:Semantics; D012813:Sign Language; D013030:Spain; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: ERPs; Iconicity; Lexical frequency; Signed language; Word production