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Abstract：
Conceptual knowledge is fundamental to human cognition. Yet, the extent to which it is influenced by language is unclear. Studies of semantic processing show that similar neural patterns are evoked by the same concepts presented in different modalities (e.g., spoken words and pictures or text) [1-3]. This suggests that conceptual representations are \"modality independent.\" However, an alternative possibility is that the similarity reflects retrieval of common spoken language representations. Indeed, in hearing spoken language users, text and spoken language are co-dependent [4, 5], and pictures are encoded via visual and verbal routes [6]. A parallel approach investigating semantic cognition shows that bilinguals activate similar patterns for the same words in their different languages [7, 8]. This suggests that conceptual representations are \"language independent.\" However, this has only been tested in spoken language bilinguals. If different languages evoke different conceptual representations, this should be most apparent comparing languages that differ greatly in structure. Hearing people with signing deaf parents are bilingual in sign and speech: languages conveyed in different modalities. Here, we test the influence of modality and bilingualism on conceptual representation by comparing semantic representations elicited by spoken British English and British Sign Language in hearing early, sign-speech bilinguals. We show that representations of semantic categories are shared for sign and speech, but not for individual spoken words and signs. This provides evidence for partially shared representations for sign and speech and shows that language acts as a subtle filter through which we understand and interact with the world.
摘要：
概念知识是人类认知的基础。然而，它受语言影响的程度尚不清楚。语义处理的研究表明，相似的神经模式是由以不同方式呈现的相同概念引起的（例如，口语和图片或文字)[1-3]。这表明概念表示是“与模态无关的”。\"然而,另一种可能性是相似性反映了对常见口语表示的检索。的确,在听到口语使用者时，文本和口语是相互依存的[4，5]，图片是通过视觉和语言途径编码的[6]。研究语义认知的平行方法表明，双语者在不同语言中为相同的单词激活相似的模式[7，8]。这表明概念表示与语言无关。\"然而,这只在双语者中进行了测试。如果不同的语言唤起不同的概念表示，这应该是最明显的比较语言的结构差异很大。聋哑父母的听众在手语和语音上都是双语的：语言以不同的方式传达。这里,我们通过比较早期听力中英式英语和英国手语引起的语义表示来测试情态和双语对概念表示的影响，双语者。我们证明了语义类别的表示是符号和语音共享的，但不适用于个人口语和体征。这为符号和语音的部分共享表示提供了证据，并表明语言充当了我们理解世界并与之互动的微妙过滤器。
