1988 — 2011 |
Shapiro, Lewis P. |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. R29Activity Code Description: Undocumented code - click on the grant title for more information. |
Sentence Processing in Normal and Aphasic Populations @ San Diego State University
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This program of research continues our long-standing effort to detail the moment-by-moment unfolding of sentence processing and its relation to the brain. Our results from neurologically-intact individuals have previously shed light on the functional architecture of the sentence processing system, securing a strong base on which to investigate brain-language relations through the study of aphasia. Sentence processing experiments have typically used different sentence types as a means to examine underlying operations. These constructions have been characterized as canonical and simple in the language of interest (in English, Subject-Verb-Object), or non-canonical and complex, often containing displaced constituents that yield, for example, Object-Subject-Verb word order in English. The goal has been to illuminate processes underlying normal comprehension, and how these go awry in aphasia. In this proposal we intend to use sentences which are not so easily divisible into these categories. We plan to use sentences that contain ellipsis, forms in which a part is missing but whose meaning can be readily reconstructed by syntactic and semantic considerations. The use of ellipsis as a tool in experimental psycholinguistic research has recently been on the rise. Here it is brought to neuropsychology in a systematic way with the potential that it will be instrumental in examining key issues and new questions that we have discovered during our previous work. Our methods range from on- to off-line analyses, and we strive to connect the two. We also seek to obtain precise measurements of lesion size, shape and position through high-resolution MR scans. This part of our effort is intended to help us understand the role that Broca's and Wernicke's regions play in language behavior through the use of detailed probability maps based on cytoarchitectonics. Our specific aims, then, are: 1. To chart the moment-by-moment temporal unfolding of sentence processing, from on- through off-line interpretation, and to discover the relation between the two. 2. To examine the relation between these processes and neural tissue through the study of aphasia and lesion analyses. 3. To assess the empirical adequacy of theories on the brain bases of sentence processing.
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2006 — 2018 |
Shapiro, Lewis P. |
T32Activity Code Description: To enable institutions to make National Research Service Awards to individuals selected by them for predoctoral and postdoctoral research training in specified shortage areas. |
Neurocognitive Approaches to Communication Disorders @ San Diego State University
PROJECT SUMMARY We propose a renewal of our training program in Neurocognitive Approaches to Communication Disorders. We request 6 pre-doctoral trainees per year (no change from our current program). This training program is designed to educate clinically sophisticated scientists who will apply their research skills to the study of language and communicative disorders, and who will, likewise, apply their clinical acumen to their research endeavors. The proposed program takes advantage of the rich intellectual resources available in the San Diego, and in particular, the SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Language and Communicative Disorders (the JDP-LCD). Our interdisciplinary training program, for the next five years, will be headed by our Training Grant Executive Committee of senior investigators. The faculty responsible for training our Fellows include 21 mostly senior-level investigators with strong research and mentoring backgrounds. The program plan is organized around three areas of emphasis: Child Language, Adult Language, and Multilingualism. Trainees chose one or more of these emphasis areas, and also chose a `methods minor' from the following: Behavioral Dynamics, for students who want to specialize in computer-controlled methods, including reaction time and eye-tracking; Neural Imaging, for students who want to complement behavioral studies with neuroanatomical and neurophysiological techniques, including event-related brain potentials and functional magnetic resonance imaging; or Neural Modeling, for students who are interested in the simulation of normal and disordered language and cognition using artificial neural networks. The training program will continue to be focused on research with or directly applicable to clinical populations, while at the same time appreciating basic science underpinnings. To this end, trainees are required to work with mentors who investigate clinical populations, and are required to conduct such research. Furthermore, trainees are required to get direct experience with two different clinical populations, through laboratory rotations with their mentors and other faculty. Importantly, for those trainees who chose to become clinically certified speech-language pathologists, a special clinical track is available. KEY PERSONNEL Abel, Alyson, Ph.D. Barlow, Jessica, Ph.D. Blumenfeld, Henrike, Ph.D. Brown, Timothy, Ph.D. Coulson, Seana, Ph.D. Deák, Gedeon, Ph.D. Emmorey, Karen, Ph.D. Friend, Margaret, Ph.D. Gollan, Tamar, Ph.D. Halgren, Eric, Ph.D. Holcomb, Philip, Ph.D. Keating, Greg, Ph.D. Love, Tracy, Ph.D. Marinkovic, Ksenija, Ph.D. Midgley, Katherine, Ph.D. Müller, Ralph-Axel, Ph.D. Nip, Ignatius, Ph.D., CCC-SLP Pham, Giang, Ph.D., CCC-SLP Pruitt-Lord, Sonja, Ph.D., CCC-SLP Shapiro, Lewis P., Ph.D. Townsend, Jeanne, Ph.D.
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2009 — 2013 |
Love-Geffen, Tracy Shapiro, Lewis P. |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
The Temporal Characteristics of Brain-Language Relationships: Evidence From Impai @ San Diego State University
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our research program proposes to chart the unfolding of language comprehension in unimpaired adults as well as in adults with aphasia secondary to stroke. We begin with the position that sentence comprehension is rooted in cognitive and neurobiological architectures that are likely to be constrained by various real-time processing demands under 'normal'operations. In this revised proposal we focus on lexical and structural processing routines with the major comparison of interest being between regular and slowed rates of speech. We slow rate of speech input to a rate just outside the normal range of 4 to 6 syllables per second and examine how the language comprehension process is modified in neurologically intact and compromised individuals. Our purpose in doing so is to uncover properties of language comprehension that might not be apparent under normal time constraints, and to reveal the intricacies of the comprehension deficit, in particular, in Broca's aphasia. For example, we hypothesize that the functional deficit observed under normal input conditions may be reduced under slow input conditions. We combine evidence from lesion-behavior analyses, functional neuroimaging and functional connectivity to better define which regions are actively recruited during sentence processing as well as to shed light on the functional commitment of specific brain regions to aspects of sentence comprehension. We anticipate that our work will have important implications for rehabilitation efforts in aphasia. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE:: Aphasia, a language disorder caused by stroke, has enormous physical, emotional, and financial consequences for those individuals and families affected. It is estimated that there are approximately 1,000,000 individuals in the United States who have aphasia. This project seeks to uncover the details of the language deficit in aphasia through behavioral and brain mapping techniques, with implications for rehabilitation.
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