Sign language aphasia in a non‐deaf‐mute

Abstract

A 19-year-old left-handed man, who was raised by deaf-mute parents and learned sign language concurrently with normal speech, sustained a traumatic cerebral contusion. He subsequently had no evidence of apraxic, visual-spatial, or sensorimotor deficits of the left limbs with which he was accustomed to use signs. Globally aphasic with a dense right hemiparesis, he initially recovered sign language to a greater degree than spoken language with a reversal on follow-up observations. Receptive skills improved to a greater degree than expressive skills with no marked difference between verbal and sign language, but with natural signs better preserved than finger spelling.

Bimanual simultaneous movements and hemispheric dominance: Timing of events reveals hard-wired circuitry for action, speech, and imagination

“…The fact that these modalities of expression suffer the same consequences as a result of lesions affecting the same area of the major hemisphere (Meckler et al 1979) indicate that speech is best characterized as an act of symbolic significance and a marker of the action hemisphere. It is also relevant that all modalities of communication (including signing) are subject to the same neurobehavioral mismatch or uncertainty discussed above, ie, the occurrences of crossed aphasia and crossed non-aphasias in both handedness groups (Meckler et al 1979). …”

Aphasia in a Prelingually Deaf Woman

“…Most previous investigators of sign language aphasia have remarked on the absence of apraxia (Critchley, 1938;Tureen et al, 1951;Douglass and Richardson, 1959;Sarno et al, 1969;Meckler et al, 1979). L.K.…”

“…Visual half-field studies have generally suggested a greater involvement of the right hemisphere in the processing of ASL by native signers than is expected for a spoken language (Manning, Goble, Markman and LaBreche, 1977;McKeever, Hoemann, Florian and Vandeventer, 1976;Poizner, Battison and Lane, 1979;Poizner and Lane, 1979; but see also Neville and Bellugi, 1978). Only a handful of cases of sign language aphasia have been recorded (Burr, 1905;Critchley, 1938;Leischner, 1943;Tureen, Smolik and Tritt, 1951;Douglass and Richardson, 1959;Sarno, Swisher and Sarno, 1969;Kimura, Battison and Lubert, 1976;Meckler, Mack and Bennett, 1979;Underwood and Paulson, 1981). In all these cases the lesion involved the left hemisphere, although precise intrahemispheric localization data have been lacking.…”

“…Previous studies of sign language aphasia have been inconclusive. In some cases, the individual was not prelingually deaf (CritchJey, 1938;Kimura et al, 1976;Meckler et al, 1979). In others, adequate lesion localization data were not available (Burr, 1905;Douglass and Richardson, 1959;Sarno et al, 1969;Underwood and Paulson, 1981).…”