Reduced neural selectivity for mental states in deaf children with delayed exposure to sign language
Name
s41467-020-17004-y.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.3 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
cb750e70073ff53893fa1f5847eea93a
Author(s)
Richardson, Hilary
Koster-Hale, Jorie
Caselli, Naomi
Magid, Rachel
Benedict, Rachel
Olson, Halie
Pyers, Jennie
Saxe, Rebecca
Date Issued
2020
Journal
Nature Communications
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Version
Final published version
Abstract
© 2020, The Author(s). Language provides a rich source of information about other people’s thoughts and feelings. Consequently, delayed access to language may influence conceptual development in Theory of Mind (ToM). We use functional magnetic resonance imaging and behavioral tasks to study ToM development in child (n = 33, 4–12 years old) and adult (n = 36) fluent signers of American Sign Language (ASL), and characterize neural ToM responses during ASL and movie-viewing tasks. Participants include deaf children whose first exposure to ASL was delayed up to 7 years (n = 12). Neural responses to ToM stories (specifically, selectivity of the right temporo-parietal junction) in these children resembles responses previously observed in young children, who have similar linguistic experience, rather than those in age-matched native-signing children, who have similar biological maturation. Early linguistic experience may facilitate ToM development, via the development of a selective brain region for ToM.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/S41467-020-17004-Y
