Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This work provides an overview of research on sign language changes observed in healthy aging signers. We first consider the effects of age on cognition, and the changes to neural structures and organization during aging, as both can be viewed as the processes underlying age-related language changes in both sign and speech. We then review observational and experimental data on sign language processing in aging signers, where some of the more robust findings include reliance on the more canonic syntactic and lexical structures, as opposed to structures produced at the syntax-pragmatics or semantics-morphology interfaces. These findings are reviewed through the lens of several theories of brain aging, as we review the predictions that different frameworks make with respect to sign language, and discuss how sign language data can inform understanding of language change in healthy aging.
Source: Topics in Cognitive Science
DOI: 10.1111/tops.12790
Authors: Evie A. Malaia, Julia Krebs
Institutions: University of Alabama, University of Salzburg
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4407515684