Research in our lab is aimed at answering two broad questions: What does the functional anatomy of language look like?  And how does it get that way?  Our work on the first question is primarily concerned with developing the Duel Route Model of the functional neuroanatomy of language.  Our working hypothesis is that aspects of language orgranization can be understood in terms of a dorsal-ventral distinction in speech/language processing streams analogous to that observed in cortical visual processing.  Some of the specific hypotheses within this general framework include the idea that speech perception is mediated bilaterally in auditory-related cortical fields, that there is an auditory-motor interface network for speech, area Spt, which sub-serves phonological aspects of speech production and verbal short-term memory, and that posterior temporal structures play a major role in lexical semantic access, whereas anterior temporal lobe structures play a major role in sentence-level processes. The second question is approached via studies of Deaf individuals who use sign language, on the assumption that a comparison of the functional anatomy of signed versus spoken language will allow one to determine which aspects of the functional anatomy of language are shaped by sensory-motor experience and which (if any) are not.  Our research takes advantage of a variety of methods including traditional behavioral and neuropsychological studies, as well as techniques such as fMRI and MEG.