Mercator Fellow 2026
Karen Emmorey is a Distinguished Professor in the School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at San Diego State University and the Director of the Laboratory for Language and Cognitive Neuroscience. She received her doctorate in Linguistics from the University of California, Los Angeles, and she was a Senior Staff Scientist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, until 2005. Dr. Emmorey’s research focuses on what sign languages can reveal about the nature of human language, cognition, and the brain. She studies the processes involved in how deaf and hearing people produce and comprehend sign language and how these processes are represented in the brain. Her research interests also include bimodal bilingualism (i.e., sign-speech bilingualism) and the neurocognitive underpinnings of reading skill in profoundly deaf adults.
About
San Diego State University
kemmorey@sdsu.edu
Selected Publications
- Emmorey, K., Akers, E., Saunders, E., Bannazadeh, M., Droubi, E., Cooley, F., & Schotter, E. (2025). Assessing the effects of sign language experience vs. deafness on the leftward reading span. Cognitive Science, 49, e70162. DOI:10.1111/cogs.70162
- Emmorey, K., Akers, E. M., Martinez, P., Midgley, K.J., & Holcomb, P. J. (2025). Assessing sensitivity to semantic and syntactic information in deaf readers: An ERP study. Neuropsychologia, 215.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2025.109171
- Emmorey, K. (2023). Ten things you should know about sign languages. Current Directions in Psychological Science. 32(5), 387-394. https://doi.org/10.1177/09637214231173071
- Kita, S., & Emmorey, K. (2023). Gesture links language and cognition for spoken and signed languages. Nature Reviews Psychology, 2(7), 407-420. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-023-00186-9
- Emmorey, K. (2021). New perspectives on the neurobiology of sign languages. Frontiers in Communication: Language Sciences. doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2021.748430
- Emmorey, K., & Lee, B. (2021). The neurocognitive basis of skilled reading in prelingually and profoundly deaf adults. Language and Linguistics Compass, 15(2), e12407. https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12407
- Emmorey, K., Li, C., Petrich, J., & Gollan, T. H. (2020). Turning languages on and off: Switching into and out of code-blends reveals the nature of bilingual language control. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 46(3), 443-454.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000734