Neural dissociation in the production of lexical versus classifier signs in ASL: distinct patterns of hemispheric asymmetry.

We examine the hemispheric organization for the production of two classes of ASL signs, lexical signs and classifier signs. Previous work has found strong left hemisphere dominance for the production of lexical signs, but several authors have speculated that classifier signs may involve the right hemisphere to a greater degree because they can represent spatial information in a topographic, non-categorical manner. Twenty-one unilaterally brain damaged signers (13 left hemisphere damaged, 8 right hemisphere damaged) were presented with a story narration task designed to elicit both lexical and classifier signs.

Neural organization of linguistic short-term memory is sensory modality-dependent: evidence from signed and spoken language.

Despite decades of research, there is still disagreement regarding the nature of the information that is maintained in linguistic short-term memory (STM). Some authors argue for abstract phonological codes, whereas others argue for more general sensory traces. We assess these possibilities by investigating linguistic STM in two distinct sensory-motor modalities, spoken and signed language.

Sign language aphasia following right hemisphere damage in a left-hander: a case of reversed cerebral dominance in a deaf signer?

Recent lesion studies have shown that left hemisphere lesions often give rise to frank sign language aphasias in deaf signers, whereas right hemisphere lesions do not, suggesting similar patterns of hemispheric asymmetry for signed and spoken language. We present here a case of a left-handed, deaf, life-long signer who became aphasic after a right-hemisphere lesion. The subject exhibits deficits in sign language comprehension and production typically associated with left hemisphere damaged signers.