Research Projects

Cross-Linguistic Studies in Aphasia

This study evaluates word and sentence processing in aphasic patients in three different languages: English, Italian, and Mandarin Chinese. Experiments involving aphasic patients are complemented by parallel experiments using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the same three languages. Cross-linguistic comparisons of normal and abnormal language functioning across structurally-different languages allow us to determine which brain structures supporting language are universal and which are language-specific. This study was begun by Elizabeth Bates at the University of California, San Diego, and has produced cutting-edge research regarding the brain areas involved in speaking different languages.

Behavioral Neuroscience and Stroke: Language

This study investigates the brain areas involved in specific components of language. Lesion analysis, functional MRI, and event-related potentials assess the functional roles of particular brain areas in language, the time course with which they are recruited into the language system, the ways in which these areas interact with each other, and how they interact with other areas that support the skills necessary for language. This work is in collaboration with our colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Davis.

Primary Progressive Aphasia

The aim of this study is to investigate the brain basis of a progressive form of aphasia that is caused by degeneration of different brain areas over time. Unlike aphasia caused by a stroke, progressive aphasia leads to a unique set of language and cognitive deficits in patients with this disorder. This project also involves using neuroimaging techniques such as MRI to help us understand the changes that occur in this degnerative disorder. This work is done in collaboration with colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco and is headed by Dr. Maria Luisa Gorno-Tempini.

Voxel-based Lesion Symptom Mapping

A new type of neuroimaging analysis we have developed (Voxel-based Lesion Symptom Mapping, VLSM; Bates et al., 2003) permits us to analyze stroke lesion data similar to ways used in functional neuroimaging so that the relative contributions of different brain regions to a given cognitive or linguistic function can be analyzed. This technique is allowing us to visualize networks of brain regions responsible for various abilities such as sentence comprehension and problem solving.