Laura-Ann Petitto

Laura-Ann Petitto (born c. 1954) is a cognitive neuroscientist and a developmental cognitive neuroscientist, known for her discoveries involving the language capacity of chimpanzees, the biological bases of language in humans, especially early language acquisition (be it language on the hands in sign language or the tongue in oral language), and bilingualism and the bilingual brain. She is also known for her role in the creation of the new scientific discipline, called educational neuroscience. She is currently a professor in the department of psychology at Gallaudet University, and an affiliated professor in the department of psychology at Georgetown University. Petitto is also the science director of Gallaudet University's branch of the National Science Foundation's Visual Language and Visual Learning Center.