Abstract

Dean Falk has strategically explored “mother-infant gestural and vocal interactions . . . in chimpanzees and humans” in order to offer hypotheses “about the evolutionary underpinnings that preceded the first glimmerings of language.” Though she offers compelling evidence for many interesting hypotheses as to the epigenesis of language, other possibilities have yet to be explored. Here we explore the role of gestural communication among deaf signers and the neural correlates associated with this type of communication.