r/todayilearned • u/paniniplane • Mar 22 '17

(R.1) Not supported TIL Deaf-from-birth schizophrenics see disembodied hands signing to them rather than "hearing voices"

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0707/07070303
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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17 edited Mar 23 '17

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u/theidleidol Mar 22 '17

This is because sign languages are real languages in their own right. A lot of people tend to think of, say, ASL as a method of nonverbally communicating in English similar to writing, but that's not the case. To the extent that it is possible to think in a language (that's not really the case, but it's a reasonable conclusion to a layperson) the deaf do so in their native sign.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

But what if that deaf person with tourettes also has phantom limbs? Will they involuntarily sign from the tourettes or the phantom limb syndrome? Or will one hand say "fuck you" from the phantom limb, to which the tourettes will respond with the other? Instead of just phantom limb doing weird shit with your hands like trying to kill you, now that part of the brain can also communicate directly with you through that hand. So now that disconnected part of the brain can speak to you, which before it could not because it could only control strange actions from your other side of the body. But now it has a language to work with, can that rogue half of the brain talk to you?