Purpose: Advances in neurobiology are providing new opportunities to investigate the neurological systems underlying motor speech control. This study explores the perceptual characteristics of the speech of three genotypes of spino-cerebellar ataxia (SCA) as manifest in four different speech tasks. Methods: Speech samples from 26 speakers with SCA…

This study presents results of post-treatment interviews following computer-based script training for persons with chronic aphasia. Each of the 23 participants received 9 weeks of AphasiaScripts training. Post-treatment interviews were conducted with the person with aphasia and/or a significant other person. The 23 interviews yielded 584 coded…

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder primarily characterized by sensorimotor dysfunction. The neuropathology of PD includes a loss of dopamine (DA) neurons of the nigrostriatal pathway. Classic signs of the disease include rigidity, bradykinesia, and postural instability. However, as many as 90% of patients also experience…

Brain plasticity associated with anomia recovery in aphasia is poorly understood. Here, I review four recent studies from my lab that focused on brain modulation associated with long-term anomia outcome, its behavioral treatment, and the use of transcranial brain stimulation to enhance anomia treatment success in individuals with chronic aphasia…

Behavioral experience is at work modifying the structure and function of the brain throughout the lifespan, but it has a particularly dramatic influence after brain injury. This review summarizes recent findings on the role of experience in reorganizing the adult damaged brain, with a focus on findings from rodent stroke models of chronic upper…

Both limb and cranial motor functions are adversely impacted by Parkinson's disease (PD). While current pharmacological and surgical interventions are effective in alleviating general limb motor symptoms of PD, they have failed to provide significant benefit for cranial motor functions. This suggests that the neuropathologies mediating limb and…

Following brain injury or disease there are widespread biochemical, anatomical and physiological changes that result in what might be considered a new, very different brain. This adapted brain is forced to reacquire behaviors lost as a result of the injury or disease and relies on neural plasticity within the residual neural circuits. The same…

Substantial data have accumulated over the past decade indicating that the adult brain is capable of substantial structural and functional reorganization after stroke. While some limited recovery is known to occur spontaneously, especially within the first month post-stroke, there is currently significant optimism that new interventions based on…

We report two sets of experiments showing that the large individual variability in language learning success in adults can be attributed to neurophysiological, neuroanatomical, cognitive, and perceptual factors. In the first set of experiments, native English-speaking adults learned to incorporate lexically meaningfully pitch patterns in words. We…

Brain plasticity refers to the capacity of the nervous system to change its structure and ultimately its function over a lifetime. There have been major advances in our understanding of the principles of brain plasticity and behavior in laboratory animals and humans. Over the past decade there have been advances in the application of these…

We compared the processing of natural language quantifiers in a group of patients with schizophrenia and a healthy control group. In both groups, the difficulty of the quantifiers was consistent with computational predictions, and patients with schizophrenia took more time to solve the problems. However, they were significantly less accurate only…

In this prospective study, data on incidence, stuttering characteristics, co-occurring speech disorders, and recovery of neurogenic stuttering in a large sample of stroke participants were assessed. Following stroke onset, 17 of 319 participants (5.3%; 95% CI, 3.2-8.3) met the criteria for neurogenic stuttering. Stuttering persisted in at least…

The aim of this study was to examine the consonant-vowel co-occurrence patterns predicted by the Frame-Content theory in 16 nine-month-old babies with unrepaired cleft palate ([plus or minus]cleft lip) and 16 age-matched non-cleft babies. Babble from these babies was phonetically transcribed and grouped according to the intrasyllabic predictions…

Background: Web based speech training for dysarthric speakers, such as E-learning based Speech Therapy (EST), puts considerable demands on auditory discrimination abilities. Aims: To discuss the development and the evaluation of an auditory discrimination test (ADT) for the assessment of auditory speech discrimination skills in Dutch adult…

Purpose: To describe and compare behavioral profiles associated with auditory processing disorder (APD) and specific language impairment (SLI) in school-age children. Method: The participants in this cross-sectional observational study were 64 children (mean age 10.1 years) recruited through clinician referrals. Thirty-five participants had a…