Psychology Seminar: "Plasticity in language learning and its neural substrate"

We are joined by Dr. Evelyne Mercure from University College London to talk on 'Plasticity in language learning and its neural substrate: Insights from hearing infants with Deaf mothers'

If a Deaf mother uses a signed language, such as British Sign Language (BSL), as her preferred mode of communication, the communicative experience of her hearing infant is likely to differ from that of hearing infants of hearing mothers.

This presentation will discuss behavioural, eye-tracking and fNIRS data from hearing infants of Deaf mothers, in comparison with monolingual and bilingual infants with hearing mothers. These data assess the influence of early experience on speech processing, language learning and the neural substrate of spoken and signed language, and aims to clarify experience-dependent plasticity in infancy.