HESP Seminar: Lorna Quandt (Gallaudet)

How does being deaf (or knowing sign language) change perception?

Abstract: In recent decades, researchers have wondered how deafness may change visual perception, in part due to experience-dependent neuroplasticity or the repurposing of the auditory cortex for visual processing. In this talk, I will cover research from my lab investigating this question, rooted within the deaf and signing community at Gallaudet University. With access to diverse populations of deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing signers with and without assistive technologies, we have been able to probe questions regarding how deafness, signed language fluency, and age of ASL acquisition each contribute to visual perception. Additionally, our research examines visual processing at many levels-- from low-level motion discrimination all the way to perception of degraded ASL fingerspelling. The talk will include studies using behavioral measures alongside EEG time-frequency analyses.