Li Qiang, Xia Shuang, Zhao Fei, Qi Ji
Engineering College for the Deaf, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, China.
Department of Radiology, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin 300192, China.
J Commun Disord. 2014 Jul-Aug;50:51-60. doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2014.05.001. Epub 2014 May 27.
The purpose of this study was to assess functional changes in the cerebral cortex in people with different sign language experience and hearing status whilst observing and imitating Chinese Sign Language (CSL) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). 50 participants took part in the study, and were divided into four groups according to their hearing status and experience of using sign language: prelingual deafness signer group (PDS), normal hearing non-signer group (HnS), native signer group with normal hearing (HNS), and acquired signer group with normal hearing (HLS). fMRI images were scanned from all subjects when they performed block-designed tasks that involved observing and imitating sign language stimuli. Nine activation areas were found in response to undertaking either observation or imitation CSL tasks and three activated areas were found only when undertaking the imitation task. Of those, the PDS group had significantly greater activation areas in terms of the cluster size of the activated voxels in the bilateral superior parietal lobule, cuneate lobe and lingual gyrus in response to undertaking either the observation or the imitation CSL task than the HnS, HNS and HLS groups. The PDS group also showed significantly greater activation in the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus which was also found in the HNS or the HLS groups but not in the HnS group. This indicates that deaf signers have better sign language proficiency, because they engage more actively with the phonetic and semantic elements. In addition, the activations of the bilateral superior temporal gyrus and inferior parietal lobule were only found in the PDS group and HNS group, and not in the other two groups, which indicates that the area for sign language processing appears to be sensitive to the age of language acquisition.
After reading this article, readers will be able to: discuss the relationship between sign language and its neural mechanisms.
本研究的目的是使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）观察和模仿中国手语（CSL）时，评估不同手语经验和听力状况的人群大脑皮层的功能变化。50名参与者参与了该研究，并根据他们的听力状况和手语使用经验分为四组：语前聋手语者组（PDS）、听力正常非手语者组（HnS）、听力正常的先天手语者组（HNS）和听力正常的后天手语者组（HLS）。当所有受试者执行涉及观察和模仿手语刺激的组块设计任务时，对他们进行fMRI图像扫描。在执行观察或模仿CSL任务时发现了9个激活区域，仅在执行模仿任务时发现了3个激活区域。其中，PDS组在执行观察或模仿CSL任务时，双侧顶上小叶、楔叶和舌回激活体素的簇大小方面，比HnS、HNS和HLS组有明显更大的激活区域。PDS组在双侧额下回也表现出明显更大的激活，HNS组或HLS组也有此现象，但HnS组没有。这表明聋人手语者有更好的手语熟练度，因为他们更积极地参与语音和语义元素。此外，双侧颞上回和顶下小叶的激活仅在PDS组和HNS组中发现，而在其他两组中未发现，这表明手语处理区域似乎对语言习得年龄敏感。
阅读本文后，读者将能够：讨论手语与其神经机制之间的关系。
