The Aphasia and Aging Lab

The Aphasia and Aging lab, led by Dr. Aviva Lerman, is part of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Haifa. We conduct research that investigates how multilingual and monolingual older adults process language and respond to language treatment when they have a neurological disorder that affects language and communication, such as aphasia and dementia, compared with healthy older adults. 

Our current areas of research include:

• Within-language and cross-language treatment generalisation in post-stroke aphasia and primary progressive aphasia.

• White matter tract integrity and treatment-induced neuroplasticity in people with aphasia.

• Using the “Living with Aphasia” model to better understand the effects of impairment, language environment, participation, and personal factors in people with aphasia from different cultural backgrounds.

• Word retrieval across the lifespan in multilingual and monolingual adults.

• Narrative and conversation analysis in healthy older adults, people with aphasia, and people with dementia.