The Neurobiology of Reading Differs for Deaf and Hearing Adults Karen Emmorey Please cite as: Emmorey, K. (2020). The neurobiology of reading differs for deaf and hearing adults. In M. Marschark and H. Knoors (Eds). Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies in Learning and Cognition, pp. 347–359, Oxford University Press. Running head: The neurobiology of reading Karen Emmorey Laboratory for Language and Cognitive Neuroscience 6495 Alvarado Road, Suite 200 San Diego, CA 92120 USA
[email protected] Acknowledgements This work was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (DC014246) and grants from the National Science Foundation (BCS-1651372; BCS-1756403). The neurobiology of reading 2 Abstract Recent neuroimaging and electrophysiological evidence reveal how the reading system successfully adapts when phonological codes are relatively coarse-grained due to reduced auditory input during development. New evidence suggests that the optimal end-state for the reading system may differ for deaf versus hearing adults and indicates that certain neural patterns that are maladaptive for hearing readers may be beneficial for deaf readers. This chapter focuses on deaf adults who are signers and have achieved reading success. Although the left-hemisphere dominant reading circuit is largely similar, skilled deaf readers exhibit a more bilateral neural response to written words and sentences compared to their hearing peers, as measured by event- related potentials and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Skilled deaf readers may also rely more on neural regions involved in semantic processing compared to hearing readers. Overall, emerging evidence indicates that the neural markers for reading skill may differ for deaf and hearing adults.