This long-running grant deals with the persistent language impairment that results from left hemisphere stroke (chronic aphasia). Over the years, it produced new aphasia assessment tools, experimental methods, and computational and statistical techniques, and made these available to the research community. Unique to our approach is the emphasis on linking data to implemented computational models of individual patients and patient variability that are derived from psycholinguistic and cognitive principles. These data and models now form the backbone of lesion-mapping and learning studies that are the focus of the next cycle. Building on our success in applying group-level, voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) methodology, the next cycle will introduce new enhancements in the form of multivariate lesion-behavior mapping at the level of voxels, regions, and tracks. Coupling these powerful techniques to our model-driven behavioral analysis ensures that the """"""""symptoms"""""""" that are mapped are realistic with respect to psycholinguistic models, and meaningful with respect to patient performance.
Specific aims are to identify lesion correlates of impairments at conceptual, lexical-semantic, and lexical-phonological stages of word production. There is consensus on the need to bridge the gap between theory and practice in language rehabilitation. Towards this end, a series of studies are proposed that aim to articulate principles of learning in connection with the learning-based recovery of lexical- semantic and lexical-phonological access to words in aphasia. As in our past work, the innovation is the linking of individual patients and patient variability to theory and models. Specifically, we strive to formulate principles of learning that specify how impairment in the lexical access system affects the system's ability to monitor its own state, strengthen weights through repetition, learn from errors, and so on. Such principles constitute building blocks for effective, individually tailored treatment strategies. They are building blocks, too, for learning-based approaches to recovery of other, more complex language functions.

Public Health Relevance

Our research is relevant to the diagnosis of acquired disorders of language, the mapping of language functions in the human brain, and the development of theoretically motivated rehabilitation strategies. An ongoing commitment is to provide ready access by others to the methods and data developed under this project.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DC000191-33
Application #
8706116
Study Section
Language and Communication Study Section (LCOM)
Program Officer
Cooper, Judith
Project Start
1982-04-01
Project End
2016-08-31
Budget Start
2014-09-01
Budget End
2015-08-31
Support Year
33
Fiscal Year
2014
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Albert Einstein Medical Center (Philadelphia)
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Philadelphia
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
19141
Mirman, Daniel; Landrigan, Jon-Frederick; Kokolis, Spiro et al. (2018) Corrections for multiple comparisons in voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping. Neuropsychologia 115:112-123
Thye, Melissa; Mirman, Daniel (2018) Relative contributions of lesion location and lesion size to predictions of varied language deficits in post-stroke aphasia. Neuroimage Clin 20:1129-1138
Schuchard, Julia; Middleton, Erica L; Schwartz, Myrna F (2017) The timing of spontaneous detection and repair of naming errors in aphasia. Cortex 93:79-91
Pustina, Dorian; Coslett, Harry Branch; Ungar, Lyle et al. (2017) Enhanced estimations of post-stroke aphasia severity using stacked multimodal predictions. Hum Brain Mapp 38:5603-5615
Pustina, Dorian; Coslett, H Branch; Turkeltaub, Peter E et al. (2016) Automated segmentation of chronic stroke lesions using LINDA: Lesion identification with neighborhood data analysis. Hum Brain Mapp 37:1405-21
Kittredge, Audrey K; Dell, Gary S (2016) Learning to speak by listening: Transfer of phonotactics from perception to production. J Mem Lang 89:8-22
Middleton, Erica L; Schwartz, Myrna F; Rawson, Katherine A et al. (2016) Towards a Theory of Learning for Naming Rehabilitation: Retrieval Practice and Spacing Effects. J Speech Lang Hear Res 59:1111-1122
Schwartz, Myrna F; Middleton, Erica L; Brecher, Adelyn et al. (2016) Does naming accuracy improve through self-monitoring of errors? Neuropsychologia 84:272-81
Middleton, Erica L; Schwartz, Myrna F; Rawson, Katherine A et al. (2015) Test-enhanced learning versus errorless learning in aphasia rehabilitation: testing competing psychological principles. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 41:1253-61
Middleton, Erica L; Chen, Qi; Verkuilen, Jay (2015) Friends and foes in the lexicon: homophone naming in aphasia. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 41:77-94

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