This application requests continued support, for a 5-year period, 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 continue to contribute to the vitality of ongoing research in clinical aphasiology. The Research Symposium will target this goal by assembling a coordinated set of keynote and topically-related platform presentations and commentary, that will 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 continue to contribute to the development of new investigators in clinical aphasiology, particularly students who are members of traditionally underrepresented minority/ethnic groups. For 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 2006 CAC (and Research Symposium) is scheduled for May 30-June 3 in Ghent, Belgium. Invited speakers on the topic of """"""""Neuroplasticity and Recovery from Aphasia"""""""" will eludicate some of the newest ways to conceptualize and capture recovery, with reference to brain structure and function, and provide upto- the-minute evidence about the brain's capacity for reorganization when exposed to treatment/experience regimens. Subsequent meetings will be held on approximately the same dates. The location for 2007 is the Chaparal Suites Resort in Scottsdale, with the likely topic of """"""""Bilingual Aphasia."""""""" Other sites and topics remain to be finalized and will depend on advances in the field, but potential topics include: """"""""The Structure of Language and Music,"""""""" """"""""Working Memory and Language,"""""""" and """"""""Sign Language in Aphasia."""""""" Aphasia is a devastating communication problem that can impair talking, understand others, reading, and writing. Attendees at this conference will learn new things to help assess and treat aphasia more effectively.
