Karen Emmorey
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kemmorey.bsky.social
Karen Emmorey
@kemmorey.bsky.social
2.5K followers 390 following 79 posts
Professor at San Diego State University; sign languages, neuroscience, reading, gesture, all things linguistic
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kemmorey.bsky.social
Karen Emmorey @kemmorey.bsky.social · Nov 11
With so many new followers, I thought I would send you all to my PSA "10 things you should know about sign languages" - open access here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Ten Things You Should Know About Sign Languages - Karen Emmorey, 2023
The 10 things you should know about sign languages are the following: (1) Sign languages have phonology and poetry. (2) Sign languages vary in their linguistic ...
journals.sagepub.com
kemmorey.bsky.social
Sign language research provides some key data supporting this framework for language evolution
profsimonfisher.bsky.social Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 4d
Origins of language, one of humanity’s most distinctive traits, may be best explained as a unique convergence of multiple capacities each with its own evolutionary history, involving intertwined roles of biology & culture. This framing can expand research horizons. A 🧵 on our @science.org paper.🧪1/n
What enables human language? A biocultural framework
Explaining the origins of language is a key challenge in understanding ourselves as a species. We present an empirical framework that draws on synergies across fields to facilitate robust studies of l...
www.science.org
November 23, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Reposted by Karen Emmorey
maxkozlov.bsky.social
About that exclusive, "closed-to-press" MAHA summit last week with RFK and JD Vance: I got in.

Here's what I saw. 🧵 🧪

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
A glorious selfie with the official MAHA lanyard seconds after I made it past Secret Service screening.
November 21, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Reposted by Karen Emmorey
striemamit.bsky.social
Pls report: We're hiring! Looking for a postdoctoral research fellow to join our study of individual differences in plasticity in #blindness (+ possible extension to #deafness) using fMRI.

Details and application: apply.interfolio.com/177838

#hiring #postdoc #neurojobs #Neuroscience #NeuroTwitter
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by Karen Emmorey
jpeelle.bsky.social
Important for reviewers and people interpreting reviews of their grants
November 21, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Karen Emmorey
novicsara.bsky.social
ICYMI and want to read about Something Else for a minute: I wrote about the history and evolution of deaf representation for @pbs.org American Masters. You can stream their documentary "Not Alone Anymore" on Marlee Matlin for free on the site, including an ASL version 🤩. www.pbs.org/wnet/america...
How the portrayal of Deaf people in film has evolved over time | American Masters | PBS
March 30th, 1987—21-year-old Marlee Matlin, bespectacled and in a puff-sleeved purple gown, cautiously took the stage and changed the course of film
www.pbs.org
November 18, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Reposted by Karen Emmorey
A very useful review and update on the anatomic infratstructure for language:
"Brain structural networks underlying language" by
Angela Friederici
journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1...
Brain structural networks underlying language | Physiological Reviews | American Physiological Society
The unique human ability to process complex language requires the interaction of multiple brain areas located in the inferior frontal and posterior temporal cortex connected by white matter fiber trac...
journals.physiology.org
November 14, 2025 at 1:41 PM
kemmorey.bsky.social
This paper looks pretty cool and is definitely relevant to sign languages and iconicity
November 10, 2025 at 2:39 PM
kemmorey.bsky.social
New review by Schönström & Holmström documenting the "crucial role that fingerspelling plays in enhancing literacy and language development among deaf children." academic.oup.com/jdsde/advanc...
Fingerspelling as a pathway to deaf children’s reading: a scoping review
Abstract. The role of fingerspelling or manual alphabet for reading among deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals has been of great interest in research. What
academic.oup.com
November 1, 2025 at 5:44 PM
kemmorey.bsky.social
Another new paper by Aaron Shield! He found that no bimodal bilingual autistic child demonstrated a consistent sign-language advantage, challenging the assumption that sign is inherently more accessible to autistic children. www.frontiersin.org/journals/lan...
Frontiers | Language development in bimodal bilingual autistic children: a case series of hearing children with deaf signing parents
IntroductionIt is often assumed that sign language may be a more accessible alternative to speech for autistic children who have minimally expressive spoken ...
www.frontiersin.org
October 28, 2025 at 3:02 PM
kemmorey.bsky.social
New case study of a Deaf autistic signer finds autism affects both linguistic and affective facial expressions, supporting accounts grounded in motor and maybe prosodic difficulties. Also supports effective languaging strategies beyond the neurotypical norm. www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/15...
www.mdpi.com
October 25, 2025 at 3:48 PM
kemmorey.bsky.social
Emmorey et al (2008) was wrong (underpowered)! New paper by Asanowicz et al. shows that bimodal bilinguals (Codas), like unimodal bilinguals, exhibit enhancements in specific aspects of executive control. Codas also showed unique effects of visuospatial attention.
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
APA PsycNet
psycnet.apa.org
October 17, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Reposted by Karen Emmorey
jessicacalarco.com
I have to fan-girl for a minute here. My friend @rosvall-lab.bsky.social built an app to gather data on bird behavior during the 2024 solar eclipse. 10,000+ citizen scientists contributed (including my kids), and the resulting paper was published in Science today!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Total solar eclipse triggers dawn behavior in birds: Insights from acoustic recordings and community science
On 8 April 2024, a total solar eclipse disrupted light-dark cycles for North American birds during the lead-up to spring reproduction. Compiling more than 10,000 community observations and artificial ...
www.science.org
October 9, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Reposted by Karen Emmorey
sayittomyface.bsky.social
Love this! So talented and creative. It’s the soundtrack to the scientific apocalypse we are living in! I follow @ellecordova.bsky.social here but this wasn’t posted. This was from TikTok! Enjoy!
October 9, 2025 at 1:37 AM
kemmorey.bsky.social
Skilled deaf readers exhibit BILATERAL hierarchical tuning in the visual word form system, unlike matched hearing readers. We suggest a shift from bilateral to left-lateralized processing is not necessary for successful reading. New paper led by Laurie Glezer. direct.mit.edu/nol/article/...
Bilateral Word Selectivity Gradients in the Visual Word Form System in Skilled Deaf Readers
Abstract. In hearing people visual word recognition relies on a hierarchical organization in left ventral occipitotemporal (vOT) cortex. While right hemisphere recruitment has been implicated in poor ...
direct.mit.edu
October 6, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by Karen Emmorey
chazfirestone.bsky.social
Out today!

www.cell.com/current-biol...
Screenshot of the PDF of: Boger, T., & Firestone, C. (2025). Visual anagrams reveal high-level effects with 'identical' stimuli. Current Biology, 35, PR910–R912.
October 6, 2025 at 2:56 PM
kemmorey.bsky.social
This looks interesting!! Looking forward to reading Greg’s book 📖 🧠🤟
gregoryhickok.bsky.social Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · Oct 4
My attempt to depict the neural architecture of language as motivated in my forthcoming book, Wired for Words. Like colors represent functional connectivity. Main insight: linguistic levels are all organized with a sensorimotor-like architecture. pbs.twimg.com/media/G2cwsM...
October 6, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Karen Emmorey
peiferlabunc.bsky.social
Fascinating thread about the identification of one of the first genes with a clear role in human speech and language! Extra credit for those who dig in to find out why its called a "forkhead domain" 🧪
profsimonfisher.bsky.social Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · Oct 4
Twenty-four years ago today, our paper “A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder” was published: www.nature.com/articles/350....
A personal thread about the ups & downs of the journey we took to get to that point....1/n
🗣️🧬🧪
Image shows the first two printed pages of the paper “A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder” by Cecilia Lai and colleagues, published in Nature in 2001 (volume 413, pages 519-523). The abstract reads as follows: Individuals affected with developmental disorders of speech and language have substantial difficulty acquiring expressive and/or receptive language in the absence of any profound sensory or neurological impairment and despite adequate intelligence and opportunity. Although studies of twins consistently indicate that a significant genetic component is involved, most families segregating speech and language deficits show complex patterns of inheritance, and a gene that predisposes individuals to such disorders has not been identified. We have studied a unique three-generation pedigree, KE, in which a severe speech and language disorder is transmitted as an autosomal-dominant monogenic trait. Our previous work mapped the locus responsible, SPCH1, to a 5.6-cM interval of region 7q31 on chromosome 7. We also identified an unrelated individual, CS, in whom speech and language impairment is associated with a chromosomal translocation involving the SPCH1 interval. Here we show that the gene FOXP2, which encodes a putative transcription factor containing a polyglutamine tract and a forkhead DNA-binding domain, is directly disrupted by the translocation breakpoint in CS. In addition, we identify a point mutation in affected members of the KE family that alters an invariant amino-acid residue in the forkhead domain. Our findings suggest that FOXP2 is involved in the developmental process that culminates in speech and language.
October 5, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by Karen Emmorey
gregggonsalves.bsky.social
This isn't "signing on to Trump's plan"--it is straight up extortion--and "the benefits" are akin to Mafia protection. Nice university ya got there, shame if something should happen to it. Just. Say. No. www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
Colleges weigh whether to sign onto Trump plan or forgo federal benefits
A new proposal from the Trump administration would give colleges funding advantages if they adopt conservative priorities.
www.washingtonpost.com
October 3, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Reposted by Karen Emmorey
mpi-nl.bsky.social
We're seeking the next Director of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics! Lead cutting-edge research in language & cognition. Nominations (incl. self) due 19 Dec 2025.
mpi.nl/career-education/vacancies/vacancy/nominations-and-self-nominations-sought-position-director-max
October 3, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Reposted by Karen Emmorey
wimpouw.bsky.social
www.envisionbox.org has been shortlisted for the Leo Waaijers Open Science price: ukb.nl/en/news/shor...

@babajideowoyele.bsky.social @jamestrujillo.bsky.social @sarkadava.bsky.social @DavideAhmar @acwiek.bsky.social

Amazing Markus Küpper made an animated video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HduI...
EnvisionBOX overview2025
YouTube video by Wim Pouw
www.youtube.com
October 2, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Reposted by Karen Emmorey
fernandaedi.bsky.social
Posting on behalf of Tamar Gollan, who is not on Bluesky:

A postdoc position is open and available immediately in Dr. Tamar Gollan’s Laboratory of Aging Bilingualism at the University of California, San Diego, funded by NIH & NSF. See link for details!

psychiatry.ucsd.edu/about/LAB_Go...
psychiatry.ucsd.edu
September 30, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Reposted by Karen Emmorey
noraduggan.bsky.social
Application for a PhD position at our department is now open! We are looking for applicants that are interested in areas of sign language linguistics, general sign language studies, or deaf bilingualism/multilingualism. Deadline is 15th Oct. Please share away! su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
PhD student in Linguistics, sign language
The Department of Linguistics at Stockholm University conducts research and offers education in a number of areas such as child language development, computational linguistics, general linguistics, ph
su.varbi.com
September 19, 2025 at 5:05 AM
Reposted by Karen Emmorey
wmatchin.bsky.social
University of South Carolina has *7* tenure-track faculty positions in Neurobiology of Language:

tinyurl.com/USC-Faculty-...

Positions in COMD, Psych, Linguistics, School of Medicine.

@snlmtg.bsky.social #SNL2025, we will have a booth.

w/@rutvikdesai.bsky.social @imb-uofsc.bsky.social
September 9, 2025 at 2:49 PM
kemmorey.bsky.social
Definitely relevant to sign language researchers!
limorraviv.bsky.social Limor Raviv 🐘🤗🦒🍄🦄 @limorraviv.bsky.social · Sep 9
Super proud of this work and very grateful for all the amazing people who provided valuable feedback along the way @remivantrijp.bsky.social @sheinalew.bsky.social @cedricboeckx.bsky.social @inbalarnon.bsky.social ❤️❤️❤️🙏
September 9, 2025 at 1:23 PM
kemmorey.bsky.social
I signed up for a protest in my hometown - you can too. Our voices matter
 Nancy Kanwisher @nancykanwisher.bsky.social · Aug 29
I will be participating in four protests this weekend to resist the ongoing destruction of science, healthcare, and democracy in this country.
Please consider joining one of the many labor day rallies, you can find many of them here www.mobilize.us/mayday/
A few further thoughts in this thread...
Volunteer Opportunities, Events, and Petitions Near Me · May Day Strong on Mobilize
Find events, petitions, volunteer opportunities, fundraisers and more with May Day Strong.
www.mobilize.us
August 29, 2025 at 1:15 PM