Mapping the reading circuitry for skilled deaf readers: An fMRI study of semantic and phonological processing

• Published in: Brain and language Vol. 126; no. 2; pp. 169 - 180
• Main Authors: Emmorey, Karen, Weisberg, Jill, McCullough, Stephen, Petrich, Jennifer A.F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Inc 01.08.2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Brain - physiology; Brain Mapping; Deaf; Deafness; Ear, auditive nerve, cochleovestibular tract, facial nerve: diseases, semeiology; Female; fMRI; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Handicap; Humans; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; Left inferior prefrontal cortex; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical sciences; Non tumoral diseases; Otorhinolaryngology. Stomatology; Persons With Hearing Impairments; Phonetics; Phonology; Psychology and medicine; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reading; Semantics; Word reading; fMRI; Left inferior prefrontal cortex; Phonology; Word reading; Semantics; Deaf; Human; Word; Central nervous system; Auditory disorder; Cognition; Prefrontal cortex; Encephalon; Hearing loss; Verbal ability; Reading; Language; Information processing; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; ENT disease
• ISSN: 0093-934X; 1090-2155
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2013.05.001

•fMRI study of the neural circuits engaged in skilled adult deaf and hearing readers.•Semantic word processing engaged a left frontal–temporal circuit in both groups.•Parietal activity was increased in deaf vs. hearing readers for a phonological task.•Left precentral gyrus was more active in deaf vs. hearing for the phonological task.•Segregation of semantics and phonology in LIPC was more robust for deaf readers. We examined word-level reading circuits in skilled deaf readers whose primary language is American Sign Language, and hearing readers matched for reading ability (college level). During fMRI scanning, participants performed a semantic decision (concrete concept?), a phonological decision (two syllables?), and a false-font control task (string underlined?). The groups performed equally well on the semantic task, but hearing readers performed better on the phonological task. Semantic processing engaged similar left frontotemporal language circuits in deaf and hearing readers. However, phonological processing elicited increased neural activity in deaf, relative to hearing readers, in the left precentral gyrus, suggesting greater reliance on articulatory phonological codes, and in bilateral parietal cortex, suggesting increased phonological processing effort. Deaf readers also showed stronger anterior–posterior functional segregation between semantic and phonological processes in left inferior prefrontal cortex. Finally, weaker phonological decoding ability did not alter activation in the visual word form area for deaf readers.