People with aphasia typically have trouble speaking and understanding language with relatively spared intellect. This condition typically occurs following brain injury such as a stroke. Persons with aphasia may experience paralysis of limbs, loss of job/stability, depression/frustration, or experience a negative impact on quality of life.
At the Aphasia Research Center, we study how people with aphasia communicate and work towards developing more effective ways to improve their language.
In particular, we are interested in:
- the ability to comprehend and speak in grammatically accurate sentences
- how different word categories (especially verbs relative to nouns) are represented in the brain and how these are affected in persons with aphasia
- improving different intervention strategies for aphasia, including impairment focused language training and caregiver training
- neural plasticity, that is, the ability of the brain to alter its function in response to brain injury and training
- the interaction between cognitive abilities and communication
- the influence of bilingualism on speaking and aphasia
