LINGUIST List 12.493

Thu Feb 22 2001

Disc: Parallelism Between Lang and Genome

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Gabriele Scheler, Re: 12.449, Disc: Parallelism Between Lang and Genome

Message 1: Re: 12.449, Disc: Parallelism Between Lang and Genome

With respect to the neural substrate of sign language, there has been an
interesting article recently in PNAS by Petitto and Zatorre (McGill University),
showing that many areas specialized for speech are actually employed in 
sign language as well (ASL etc.): even planum temporale, which was seen 
as an auditory area, and which processes nonsense syllables, is used to
process nonsense gestures in sign language. So the phonological system as
such is there, and it can be employed by different modalities.

Gabriele Scheler