Akers Emily M, Midgley Katherine J, Holcomb Phillip J, Meade Gabriela, Emmorey Karen
Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, California, USA.
Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.
Biling (Camb Engl). 2024 Aug;27(4):655-667. doi: 10.1017/s1366728923000809. Epub 2023 Nov 23.
Little is known about the neural changes that accompany sign language learning by hearing adults. We used ERPs and a word-sign matching task to assess how learning impacted the N400 priming effect (reduced negativity for translations compared to unrelated trials). English monolinguals (N = 32) learned 100 ASL signs - half highly iconic (meaning was guessable), half non-iconic. In contrast to non-iconic signs, little learning was needed for the highly iconic signs as translation accuracy was similar pre- and post-learning. Prior to learning, an N400 priming effect was observed only for iconic signs. After learning, the size of the priming effect increased for non-iconic signs (replicating word learning studies) but decreased for iconic signs. For deaf ASL signers (N = 20), iconicity did not modulate the size of the N400 priming effect. We conclude that the impact of iconicity on lexico-semantic processing is reduced following learning, as signs are integrated into an emerging visual-manual lexicon.
对于听力正常的成年人学习手语时伴随的神经变化，我们了解得很少。我们使用事件相关电位（ERP）和单词-手语匹配任务来评估学习对手语 N400 启动效应（与无关试验相比，翻译时负性波幅降低）的影响。32 名英语单语者学习了 100 个美国手语（ASL）手势——其中一半是高度象形的（意思可猜测），一半是非象形的。与非象形手势相比，高度象形手势在学习前和学习后的翻译准确性相似，因此几乎不需要学习。学习之前，仅在象形手势中观察到 N400 启动效应。学习之后，非象形手势的启动效应大小增加（重复单词学习研究的结果），而象形手势的启动效应大小减小。对于失聪的美国手语使用者（20 人），象形性并未调节 N400 启动效应的大小。我们得出结论，随着手势被整合到一个新兴的视觉-手动词汇表中，学习后象形性对词汇-语义加工过程的影响会降低。
