Reading research that includes deaf readers challenges the idea that there is a single optimal pathway to skilled reading. Deaf readers often achieve comprehension comparable to hearing readers while relying less on speech-based representations, recruiting more bilateral neural networks, and making greater use of parafoveal information during sentence reading (Bélanger et al., 2012, 2013; Emmorey et al., 2017; Glezer et al., 2018; Sehyr et al., 2020; Schotter et al., 2026). An open question is whether such differences reflect adaptations specific to reading, or broader experience-dependent plasticity in attention, memory, and cognitive control?
I present findings from ongoing studies focusing on two interacting processes that support reading comprehension: prediction of upcoming words and extraction of information from extrafoveal vision. Using electroencephalography (EEG), event-related potentials (ERPs), and behavioral assessments, I examine whether deaf and hearing readers differ in the extent to which they preactivate semantic, orthographic and phonological information while reading highly predictable sentences, and when these representations become available. Second, I examine how readers use parafoveal information to facilitate comprehension. Although skilled deaf readers are thought to have a wider reading span and extract linguistic information farther from fixation than hearing readers, the nature and depth of this processing remain unclear. Presenting multiple words at a time, we examined readers’ sensitivity to semantic anomalies in parafoveal preview and how they resolve conflicts between predicted, previewed, and fixated words. The timing and magnitude of the N400 and ERP responses associated with post-lexical integration, provide insights into how competing sources of information are reconciled during comprehension.

Finally, I relate reading-related ERPs to independent neural measures of attention, distractor suppression, error monitoring, and memory updating within individuals to determine whether alternative reading pathways reflect reading-specific adaptations or broader neurocognitive plasticity in deaf signers. More broadly, this work seeks to explain how distinct sensory and language experiences give rise to multiple pathways to skilled reading.