MRRI Associate Director Laurel Buxbaum, PsyD, and colleagues from MRRI and the National Institutes of Health published the results of a new study showing that abnormalities in the connections between different brain regions determine clinical symptoms.
Author: mrri
Dylan Edwards to Present at Stroke Symposium
MRRI Director Dylan Edwards, PT, PhD, will give a presentation titled Non-invasive Brain Stimulation in Stroke Recovery at the University of Alabama Birmingham School of Medicine Stroke Symposium.
The talk, on October 5th, will explore the use of transcranial direct current stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation alone and in combination with behavioral treatment in the motor domain. Continue Reading
Dylan Edwards Welcomed as New Director
Dylan Edwards, PhD
MRRI is proud to announce that Dylan Edwards, PhD, has assumed the director position recently vacated by the partial retirement of John Whyte, MD, PhD.
Dr. Edwards joins us from Burke Neurological Institute in White Plains, N.Y., where he was the director of the Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation Laboratory and director of the Restorative Neurology Clinic. He is also a lecturer in neurology at Harvard Medical School and a professor in neuroscience at Edith Cowan University in Australia. Continue Reading
Studying How Left and Right Sides of Brain Affect Language
The core focus behind the work of Edward W. Wlotko, PhD, director of MRRI’s Cognitive Neurophysiology and Neuropsychology Lab is an examination of how the brain is able to understand language. He is particularly interested in uncovering how the two cerebral hemispheres each distinctly and jointly contribute to language processing. In this video, Dr. Wlotko describe his current research into the way hemispheric contributions to language processing may differ across individuals, with and without neuropsychological injury or disorder.
Dr. Wlotko Receives NIH Grant for Study of Sentence Comprehension in Aphasia
MRRI Institute Scientist Edward Wlotko, PhD, will serve as principal investigator of a subcontract award totaling more than $1M from the National Institutes of Health. The research is part of a grant, entitled “Cognitive control and sentence processing in aphasia,” received by Malathi Thothathiri, Ph.D., of the Department of Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences at George Washington University. Dr. Thothathiri is a former postdoctoral fellow at MRRI. Continue Reading
Dr. Kantak Receives NIH Grant for Stroke Studies
Shailesh Kantak, PhD, PT, MRRI research scientist and director of the Institute’s Neuroplasticity and Motor Behavior Laboratory, has been awarded a $1.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.
The studies to be conducted under the grant, titled “Perceptual motor interaction to improve bimanual coordination after stroke,” will focus on people who have had strokes. The studies will determine how motor and perceptual task demands of a bimanual reaching task interact to influence coordination between arms; the effects of changing perceptual and motor task demands on bimanual coordination; and the behavioral, neuroanatomic and neurophysiologic contributors to individual differences in bimanual coordination.
Buxbaum Receives 2018 Viste Award
Laurel J. Buxbaum, PsyD, associate director of the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute, has received the 2018 Viste Award from the American Society of Neurorehabilitation (ASNR).
The award honors Kenneth M. Viste, Jr., MD, who was a tireless advocate for neurorehabilitation and ASNR. According to the organization, the award is presented annually “to an individual that has supported the mission and vision of ASNR over the course of his or her career, by supporting neurorehabilitation as a field, engaging in clinical and educational work, and making our medical peers aware of the importance of neurorehabilitation.” Continue Reading
MRRI Scientists Win Honors at Einstein Research Recognition Day
Einstein Healthcare Network recently held its 30th Research Recognition Week, a celebration of the investigative work going on throughout the network, which includes MossRehab and the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute. MRRI was proud to receive special recognition during the event. Continue Reading
Dog-training Program May Benefit People With Aphasia
People with post-stroke aphasia have difficulty recalling words, and may also struggle putting words together into grammatically correct sentences or understanding what is said to them.
However – and perhaps because of – their language impairment, these people often excel at pragmatic communication, using facial expression, tone of voice, and body language, all types of communication to which animals respond more readily than the spoken word. This proficiency makes them ideal candidates for learning and implementing dog-training techniques.
In this video, Sharon Antonucci, PhD, director of the MossRehab Aphasia Center, talks about the Center’s pilot program to teach people with aphasia techniques for training their pets as a means of benefiting the patients themselves. Continue Reading
Creating a Path to Improved Naming in People with Aphasia
Aphasia can be quite frustrating for people who struggle to communicate. In addition to naming difficulties, some people with aphasia experience comprehension impairment, where hearing or reading the name of an object conveys the wrong image or meaning.
Erica Middleton, PhD, has been studying naming problems for eight years. Her last six years have been spent researching how people with aphasia can relearn and comprehend names, first as a Post-Doc at Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute (MRRI), and now as the Institute Scientist leading MRRI’s Language and Learning Laboratory.
In this video, Dr. Middleton talks about a five year, $2.4 million grant she received from the National Institutes of Health that will lead to a theory of learning needed to advance aphasia rehabilitation.