Neuroplasticity in Action: Diversity in Language and Reading Across Sensory Contexts
Friday, September 12, 2025, 2:30 – 4:30 pm, Great Hall 1, Elstad Auditorium
This panel explores how the brain adapts to support language and literacy when sensory input is significantly altered or absent. Bringing together researchers from braille reading, language and literacy development in deaf communities, cross-modal bilingualism, and brain organization in blindness and deafness, the session highlights the extraordinary flexibility of our mind and brain underpinning communication. From the way braille reading changes orthographic morphemes for blind readers, literacy development in sign language users, cortical tracking during signed communication, to brain organization regardless of sensory input, each panelist will share key findings that demonstrate how the brain’s capacity for language transcends traditional boundaries of sight and sound. The panel speakers will share insights from MEG, fMRI, and behavioral approaches, as well as information gleaned from developmental longitudinal studies and in-lab experimental paradigms. Collectively, these talks offer new perspectives on the fundamental resilience and adaptability of the brain, emphasizing the importance of sensory diversity in shaping our understanding of language acquisition, reading development, and cognitive processes. This will set the stage for what promises to be an engaging and insightful panel discussion led by participation from the audience.
Panelists:
Dr. Robert Englebretson is an Associate Professor at Rice University and will present key findings on sublexical structure in English braille, focusing on how braille orthography influences the recognition and production of certain types of digraphs and morphemes.
Dr. Brendan Costello is an Associate Group Leader at the BCBL (Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language) and will present key findings on mechanisms that underlie sign language processing and the impact of modality on the representation of language.
Dr. Kate Rowley the Deputy Director of the Deafness, Cognition, and Language Research Centre (DCAL) at University College London (UCL) and will present key findings on language and literacy development in deaf children who are British Sign Language (BSL) users.
Dr. Ella Streim-Amit is an Assistant Professor at Georgetown University Medical Center and will present key findings on brain organization in people born with blindness, deafness, or without hands.The panel will be introduced and moderated by Dr. Lorna Quandt, who is an Associate Professor at Gallaudet University, bringing expertise on the relationships between signed language processing, visual perception, and cognition.