Cortical representation of sign language: comparison of deaf signers and hearing non-signers.

Numerous studies have demonstrated activation of the classical left-hemisphere language areas when native signers process sign language. More recently, specific sign language-related processing has been suggested to occur in homologous areas of the right hemisphere as well. We now show that these cortical areas are also activated in hearing non-signers during passive viewing of signs that for them are linguistically meaningless. Neuromagnetic activity was stronger in deaf signers than in hearing non-signers in the region of the right superior temporal sulcus and the left dorsal premotor cortex, probably reflecting familiarity and linguistic meaningfulness of the observed movement sequences. In contrast, the right superior parietal lobule, the mesial parieto-occipital region, and the mesial paracentral lobule were more strongly activated in hearing non-signers, apparently reflecting active visuomotor encoding of complex unfamiliar movement sequences.