Abstract
The upper regions of the brain's temporal lobe are important both for hearing and for comprehending spoken language. We have discovered that these regions can be activated by sign language in congenitally deaf subjects, even though the temporal lobe normally functions as an auditory area. This finding indicates that, in deaf people, the brain region usually reserved for hearing may be activated by other sensory modalities, providing striking evidence of neural plasticity.
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Nishimura, H., Hashikawa, K., Doi, K. et al. Sign language ‘heard’ in the auditory cortex. Nature 397, 116 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/16376
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/16376
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