This application requests support for 3 years, for a package of elements that constitutes a """"""""Research Symposium"""""""" within the annual Clinical Aphasiology Conference (CAC). The CAC is the only scientific meeting dedicated to research that has clear implications for the clinical management of aphasia and related disorders. The goals of the proposed """"""""Research Symposium"""""""" are twofold. The first is to contribute to the vitality of ongoing investigation in clinical aphasiology. A coordinated set of keynote and topically-related platform presentations and commentary has been designed to engage attendees in the most current theory, perspectives, data, and debate on topics of relevance to contemporary research and practice. The second goal is to contribute to the development of new investigators in clinical aphasiology, particularly students who belong to traditionally underrepresented minority/ethnic groups. The bulk of the proposed budget is allocated to support travel expenses for 15 student fellows. For the student fellows supported by this grant, the Research Symposium will supplement cutting-edge topic knowledge with practice in presenting and discussing their own research, and with other specially-designed mentoring opportunities. The 2003 CAC (and Research Symposium) is scheduled for May 27-June I on Orcas Island, Washington. Invited speakers on the topic of """"""""Models of Treatment in Aphasia Rehabilitation"""""""" will discuss the language learning and processing principles that emanate from various types of models and the potential applications of these models to the conduct and evaluation of aphasia treatment. The 2004 meeting will be held on approximately the same dates in Park City, Utah, with a potential topic of """"""""Language and the Right Hemisphere."""""""" The 2005 meeting, also at the same time of year, tentatively will focus on the """"""""Neurobiology of Recovery from Aphasia and Related Disorders."""""""" About 100 participants attend the CAC each year, each earning an invitation by submitting to the program committee an abstract of a completed research project. Participants include speech-language pathologists, linguists, psycholinguists, and neurologists who represent the world's foremost investigators of clinically-relevant issues in aphasia and related disorders.
