The deaf people who use sign language are quicker at recognising and interpreting body language than hearing non-signers, according to a new research from investigators at UC Davis and UC Irvine.
The work suggests that deaf people may be especially adept at picking up on subtle visual traits in the actions of others, an ability that could be useful for some sensitive jobs, such as airport screening, Science Daily Reported.
“There are a lot of anecdotes about deaf people being better able to pick up on body language, but this is the first evidence of that,” said David Corina, professor in the UC Davis Department of Linguistics and Center for Mind and Brain.
Corina and graduate student Michael Grosvald, now a postdoctoral researcher at UC Irvine, measured the response times of both deaf and hearing people to a series of video clips showing people making American Sign Language signs or “non-language” gestures, such as stroking the chin. Their work was published online Dec. 6 in the journal Cognition.
“We expected that deaf people would recognise sign language faster than hearing people, as the deaf people know and use sign language daily, but the real surprise was that deaf people also were about 100 milliseconds faster at recognising non-language gestures than were hearing people,” Corina said.
This work is important because it suggests that the human ability for communication is modifiable and is not limited to speech, Corina said. Deaf people show us that language can be expressed by the hands and be perceived through the visual system.
When this happens, deaf signers get the added benefit of being able to recognize non-language actions better than hearing people who do not know a sign language, Corina said.
The study supports the idea that sign language is based on a modification of the system that all humans use to recognise gestures and body language, rather than working through a completely different system, Corina said.
World Hemophilia Day today: World hemophilia day will be observed on April 17 across the world, including Pakistan, to raise awareness of hemophilia and increase the availability of treatments for this condition around the world.
The World Federation of Hemophilia was founded by Frank Schnabel, who born on April 17. Every year this day is observed as the world hemophilia day around the world. The World Federation of Hemophilia started observing the day in 1989. The World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH) was established by Frank Schnabel to improve the lives of people with hemophilia with dedication. It educates people affected by the disorder to improve their health and it is true that about 75 percent of the people with this disorder do not receive adequate treatment around the world.
An estimated 1 in 1000 women and men has a disorder. However, 75 percent still receive very inadequate treatment or no treatment at all.
The reality is that most people with hemophilia or other bleeding disorders do not receive adequate diagnosis, treatment, and management for their conditions. This is important whether good treatment is already established but needs to be protected or where treatment needs to be improved.
Hemophilia is a condition in which bleeding is prolonged. Hemophilia is a condition present from birth and is normally inherited; you can’t ‘catch’ hemophilia or pass it onto others.
In some rare instances, hemophilia may develop later in life (typically affecting people in the 50+ age group). The incidence of hemophilia is quite low.
Statistics on the incidence of hemophilia vary however it’s estimated that in the United States 1 in every 5,000 -10,000 people are born with it.
The slogan for The World Hemophilia Day is ‘Close the Gap’, which reflects the difference in treatments available to people living in different parts of the world.
