The Aphasia and Aging Lab

We are currently working on numerous research projects, together with different collaborators. 

Here are some of our current projects and collaborators:

We are looking at the effects of aging, non-linguistic cognitive skills, multilingualism, and cognitive reserve on word retrieval across the adult lifespan. This project spans both healthy aging and dementia, in collaboration with researchers affiliated with the memory clinic at Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem.

Together with Dr. Malcolm and Dr. Pazuelo from the U.S., we are looking at the effects of self-disclosing aphasia to communication partners, comparing results from Israel with those in the U.S., and looking at the effect of culture and/or speaking a minority language on the type and manner of self-disclosure and its effect on communication.

Together with Dr. Neumann and Dr. Leaman from the U.S., we are investigating the use of a conversation-based treatment of aphasia and its effect on language and communication skills in all languages of bilingual people with aphasia. We are using a translanguaging model for both treatment and assessment of communication, looking at the language system as a whole and how it is used for communication, rather than looking at each language separately.

Together with Dr. Elior Moreh, M.D., from Hadassah Mount Scopus Medical Center, and Dr. Michal Ben Shachar from Bar Ilan University, we are looking at white matter tract integrity of the dorsal and ventral language streams relative to phonological, semantic, and syntactic language abilities in people with aphasia. Also, we are investigating treatment-based behavioural and neuroplastic changes to white matter in both languages of bilingual people with aphasia.