i m proud of him for just sticking to it. reporter: hearing is a gift, along with our other senses, an incredible function of our bodies. that doesn t mean deafness is a curse. just ask super bowl champion derrick coleman. or the ph.d. students in dr. petitto s lab whose research is changing how we understand learning and development. like dr. petitto says, people might discriminate between sign language and the spoken language, but the brain does not. for vital signs, i m dr. sanjay gupta.