Scientists have long been interested how the deaf process signed languages in the brain. Understanding that activity could shed light on whether the brain harbors specialized structures for decoding linguistic patterns in general¿regardless of how they are conveyed. In fact, a new study published in Tuesday’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science suggests that the brain does have such wiring, challenging the idea that speech and sound are vital for human language. Laura Ann Petitto and Robert Zatorre of McGill University and their colleagues base their conclusions on a series of experiments using positron emission tomography (PET) brain scans of 11 profoundly deaf people and 10 hearing people.

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