Language comprehension depends on the ability to temporally process the periodic structure of the language signal. In this study we investigate temporal processing of Spanish Sign Language (LSE), isolating the specific contribution of signal modality through a comparison with spoken Spanish and the contribution of linguistic status by comparing language with a non-linguistic temporally structured visual signal. Twenty-three highly proficient hearing users of LSE performed an intelligibility task with these three types of materials, manipulated with different levels of temporal distortion. The results show that the distortion differently affects the intelligibility of these signals. Spanish is characterized by a threshold of temporal distortion, beyond which intelligibility rapidly decreases and is almost completely lost. Conversely, in LSE and the visual non-linguistic task greater temporal distortion led to a gradual and constant reduction in intelligibility with no clear threshold. LSE is more resilient to temporal manipulation compared to the visual non-linguistic signal: participants’ performance never drops below 50% even with the most severe distortion. Overall, these findings suggest that the temporal processing of language arises from the complex interaction between the properties of the sensory system and the special characteristics of the language signal.

语言理解取决于对语言信号周期结构进行时间处理的能力。在这项研究中，我们调查了西班牙手语 (LSE) 的时间处理，通过与西班牙语口语的比较来隔离信号模态的具体贡献，并通过将语言与非语言时间结构的视觉信号进行比较来隔离语言状态的贡献。LSE 的 23 名非常熟练的听力用户使用这三种类型的材料执行了可懂度任务，并以不同程度的时间失真进行了处理。结果表明，失真对这些信号的可懂度有不同的影响。西班牙语的特点是时间失真的阈值，超过这个阈值，可懂度会迅速下降，几乎完全丢失。反过来，在 LSE 和视觉非语言任务中，更大的时间失真导致可懂度逐渐和持续降低，没有明确的阈值。与视觉非语言信号相比，LSE 对时间操纵更具弹性：即使出现最严重的失真，参与者的表现也不会低于 50%。总的来说，这些发现表明语言的时间处理源于感觉系统的特性和语言信号的特殊特征之间的复杂相互作用。