Deaf Hub Exploring Perspectives: A Deaf Neuroscientist’s Journey Into the Brain

Event Image
Brennan Terhune-Cotter, PhD, “A Deaf Neuroscientist’s Journey Into the Brain” at the Deaf Hub Exploring Perspectives, Fri. Nov. 14, 12 - 1 p.m., Zoom

Do you know what a brain looks like? How can language affect the brain?

Brennan Terhune-Cotter, PhD is invited to give a presentation, “A Deaf Neuroscientist’s Journey Into the Brain” at the Deaf Hub Exploring Perspectives. The event takes place at Zoom from 12 to 1 p.m. ET on Friday, November 14.

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To learn more about Dr. Terhune-Cotter, here’s his bio:

Brennan grew up in Washington D.C., where he attended Kendall Elementary and Model Secondary School for the Deaf. He got a bachelor’s degree in behavioral neuroscience and psychology from Randolph-Macon College. He then completed a three-year research project at Rochester Institute of Technology studying the development of visual attention skills in deaf signing children. In 2025, he completed a PhD at San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego. His dissertation work was on how the neural network for language is activated during signed and written language comprehension in deaf signers, with a focus on how neural activation during language comprehension is influenced by early language experience. In November 2025, he started a postdoctoral fellowship at University College London, where he will be studying the neural representations of sublexical structure in British Sign Language fingerspelling and English text.

[Image Description: Brennan Terhune-Cotter, PhD is a featured presenter at the Deaf Hub Exploring Perspectives, and his presentation is titled, “A Deaf Neuroscientist’s Journey Into the Brain.” The event takes place in Zoom from 12 to 1 p.m. ET on Friday, November 14. 

Dr. Terhune-Cotter wears glasses and a flower-patterned shirt with bleached blonde hair and trimmed beard, smiling into the camera against two different green circles filled with neural networks of the brain and the crossover of communication and brain. The QR Code located on the tip of the wavy green background leads you to the webinar registration page. The RIT/NTID Deaf Health Care and Biomedical Science Hub’s logo is on the black bar at the bottom of the graphic post.]


Contact
Deaf Hub
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Event Snapshot
When and Where
November 14, 2025
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Room/Location: Zoom
Who

Open to the Public

Interpreter Requested?

Yes

Topics
alumni
deaf community
diversity
student experience