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Age of learning affects the neural correlates of sentence structure processing in American Sign Language

Poster Session B - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Rachel Mayberry¹ (rmayberry@ucsd.edu), Deniz Ilkbasaran, Marla Hatrak, Austin Roth, Eric Halgren; ¹University of California San Diego

Research has shown that the neurolinguistic processing of sign languages is similar to that of spoken languages. Unlike spoken languages, however, sign languages are often learned by deaf children at atypically late ages after having learned scant spoken language. Research has found negative effects of late sign language learning on a range of psycholinguistic tasks. However, whether the ability to comprehend sentence structure in sign language is directly linked to the neural processing of sentence structure is unknown. Here we ask if a late onset of sign language acquisition affects the comprehension and neural processing of sentence structure in American Sign Language (ASL). Thirty-three, right-handed adults born deaf were recruited whose initial exposure to ASL ranged from birth to 21 years (M=7 years). Comprehension of 14 ASL sentences structure (6 trials each) was measured with a sentence-picture matching task. Neural sentence processing was measured and localized with fMRI using a subtraction paradigm (sentences versus word lists). Deaf adult signers who learned ASL in early childhood (0-5) showed high levels of sentence comprehension and a greater BOLD response to sentences than word lists in left-hemisphere IFG, a finding typical of hearing speakers. By contrast signers who learned ASL in late childhood or adolescence comprehended simple but not complex (bi-clausal) sentences and showed a greater BOLD response to word lists than sentences in LH IFG. These results indicate that an absence of language learning in early life limits the learning of sentence structure with associated effects on the neural processing of structure.

Topic Area: LANGUAGE: Development & aging