Project
Understanding the causes of functional selectivity in the human brain through a study of sign language and visual Braille reading.
Past research has developed the tools to investigate information processing in the human brain, and has used these methods to elucidate the complex hierarchical system involved in the processing of visual stimuli. In particular, a large part of human cortex is organized in terms of the category a visual stimulus belongs to, such as faces, bodies, and visual word forms. However, as reviewed in Op de Beeck et al. (2019, Trends in Cognitive Sciences), many questions remain about how this complex organization comes about as a consequence of the interplay between factors such as the sensory properties of visual stimuli versus in which cognitive domain the stimuli are being used (e.g., for linguistic processing). In this research project we propose to clarify these interactions by investigating the changes at the neural level when individuals develop expertise in using uncommon stimuli for a a specific purpose. More specifically, we will investigate the processing of body movements, normally confined to body‐selective regions, in sign language experts, who process such body movements in the linguistic domain. In addition, we will clarify the processing of simple dot patterns in experts in visual Braille reading. These experiments will significantly advance our understanding of the determinants of the functional organization of the human visual cortex.