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Welcome to the NeuroLinguistics And Brain Lab (NeuroLAB) at the University of Washington!

Our mission is to investigate brain mechanisms that underlie language and prosodic impairments in post-stroke aphasia, Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) and aprosodia. The overarching aim of our research is to use what we learn about these brain mechanisms to inform the development of innovative treatments. We use cutting-edge neuroimaging and behavioral methods to better understand the neurobiology of language and language recovery in several populations.

We also seek to understand how the neurotypical brain processes language and prosody. Studying the neural underpinnings in neurotypical populations helps us understand how language is organized in the brain.

 

About

The NeuroLinguistics And Brain Lab (NeuroLAB) is located at the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of Washington’s Seattle campus in Seattle, WA. 

We aim to understand the brain mechanisms that underlie language and prosodic impairments in post-stroke aphasia, Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) and aprosodia. We are also developing innovative treatments for language and prosodic deficits.

We also seek to understand how the neurotypical brain processes language and prosody. Studying the neural underpinnings in neurotypical populations helps us understand how language is organized in the brain.

Publications

Recent Publications

Kim, J. H., Cust, S., Lammers, B., Sheppard, S. M., Keator, L. M., Tippett, D. C., … Sebastian, R. (2024). Cerebellar tDCS enhances functional communication skills in chronic Aphasia. Aphasiology, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2024.2328874

Meier, E. L., Sheppard, S. M., Sebastian, R., Berube, S., Goldberg, E. B., Shea, J., Stein, C. M., & Hillis, A. E. (2023). Resting state correlates of picture description informativeness in left vs. right hemisphere chronic stroke. Frontiers in neurology, 14, 1288801. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2023.1288801 

Sheppard, S. M., Nobles, S. L., Palma, A., Kajfez, S., Jordan, M., Crowley, K., & Beier, S. (2023). One Font Doesn’t Fit All: The Influence of Digital Text Personalization on Comprehension in Child and Adolescent Readers. Education Sciences, 13(9), 864. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13090864 

Stockbridge, M. D., Elm, J., Breining, B. L., Tippett, D. C., Sebastian, R., Cassarly, C., Teklehaimanot, A., Spell, L. A., Sheppard, S. M., Vitti, E., Ruch, K., Goldberg, E. B., Kelly, C., Keator, L. M., Fridriksson, J., & Hillis, A. E. (2023). Transcranial Direct-Current Stimulation in Subacute Aphasia: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Stroke, 54(4), 912–920. https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.122.041557 

Mefford, J. A., Zhao, Z., Heilier, L., Xu, M., Zhou, G., Mace, R., Sloane, K. L., Sheppard, S. M., & Glenn, S. (2023). Varied performance of picture description task as a screening tool across MCI subtypes. PLOS digital health, 2(3), e0000197. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000197 

Minga, J., Sheppard, S. M., Johnson, M., Hewetson, R., Cornwell, P., & Blake, M. L. (2023). Apragmatism: The renewal of a label for communication disorders associated with right hemisphere brain damage. International journal of language & communication disorders, 58(2), 651–666. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12807 

Liu, C. F., Hsu, J., Xu, X., Kim, G., Sheppard, S. M., Meier, E. L., Miller, M. I., Hillis, A. E., & Faria, A. V. (2023). Digital 3D Brain MRI Arterial Territories Atlas. Scientific data, 10(1), 74. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01923-0 

Beier, S., Berlow, S., Boucaud, E., Bylinskii, Z., Cai, T., Cohn, J., Crowley, K., Day, S. L., Dingler, T., Dobres, J., Healey, J., Jain, R., Jordan, M., Kerr, B., Li, Q., Miller, D. B., Nobles, S., Papoutsaki, A., Qian, J., . . . Wolfe, B. (2021). Readability Research: An Interdisciplinary Approach. ArXiv. /abs/2107.09615 

Ruch, K., Stockbridge, M. D., Walker, A., Vitti, E., Shea, J., Sheppard, S., Pacl, A., Kim, H., Faria, A. V., & Hillis, A. E. (2022). Enhanced Imaging and Language Assessments for Primary Progressive Aphasia. Neurology, 99(18), e2044–e2051. https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000201040 

Sheppard, S. M., Stockbridge, M. D., Keator, L. M., Murray, L. L., Blake, M. L., & Right Hemisphere Damage working group, Evidence-Based Clinical Research Committee, Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences (2022). The Company Prosodic Deficits Keep Following Right Hemisphere Stroke: A Systematic Review. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS, 28(10), 1075–1090. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355617721001302 

Berube, S. K., Goldberg, E., Sheppard, S. M., Durfee, A. Z., Ubellacker, D., Walker, A., Stein, C. M., & Hillis, A. E. (2022). An Analysis of Right Hemisphere Stroke Discourse in the Modern Cookie Theft Picture. American journal of speech-language pathology, 31(5S), 2301–2312. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_AJSLP-21-00294 

Stockbridge, M. D., Sheppard, S. M., Keator, L. M., Murray, L. L., Lehman Blake, M., & Right Hemisphere Disorders Working Group, Evidence-Based Clinical Research Committee and Academy of Neurological Communication Disorders and Sciences (2022). Aprosodia Subsequent to Right Hemisphere Brain Damage: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis – CORRIGENDUM. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society: JINS, 28(9), 996. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355617721001387 

Sheppard, S. M., Goldberg, E. B., Sebastian, R., Walker, A., Meier, E. L., & Hillis, A. E. (2022). Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Paired With Verb Network Strengthening Treatment Improves Verb Naming in Primary Progressive Aphasia: A Case Series. American journal of speech-language pathology, 31(4), 1736–1754. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_AJSLP-21-00272 

Sheppard, S., Schneider, A. L. C., & Hillis, A. E. (2022). Defining the Lesion for Lesion-Symptom Mapping. In Neuromethods (pp. 1-26). (Neuromethods; Vol. 180). Humana Press Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2225-4_1 

Breining, B. L., Faria, A. V., Caffo, B., Meier, E. L., Sheppard, S. M., Sebastian, R., Tippett, D. C., & Hillis, A. E. (2022). Neural regions underlying object and action naming: Complementary evidence from acute stroke and primary progressive aphasia. Aphasiology, 36(6), 732–760. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2021.1907291 

Meier, E. L., Sheppard, S. M., Goldberg, E. B., Kelly, C. R., Walker, A., Ubellacker, D. M., Vitti, E., Ruch, K., & Hillis, A. E. (2022). Dysfunctional Tissue Correlates of Unrelated Naming Errors in Acute Left Hemisphere Stroke. Language, cognition and neuroscience, 37(3), 330–347. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2021.1980593 

Sheppard, S. M., Meier, E. L., Kim, K. T., Breining, B. L., Keator, L. M., Tang, B., Caffo, B. S., & Hillis, A. E. (2022). Neural correlates of syntactic comprehension: A longitudinal study. Brain and language, 225, 105068. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2021.105068 

Harvey, D. Y., & Hamilton, R. (2022). Noninvasive brain stimulation to augment language therapy for poststroke aphasia. Handbook of clinical neurology, 185, 241–250. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-823384-9.00012-8 

Goldberg, E. B., Meier, E. L., Sheppard, S. M., Breining, B. L., & Hillis, A. E. (2021). Stroke recurrence and its relationship with language abilities. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 64, 2022-2037. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-20-00347

Breining, B.L., Faria, A.V., Caffo, B., Meier, E.L., Sheppard, S.M., Sebastian, R., Tippett, D.C., & Hillis, A.E. 2021). Neural regions underlying object and action naming: Complementary evidence from acute stroke and primary progressive aphasia. Aphasiology, 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2021.1907291

Zezinka Durfee, A., Sheppard, S.M., Blake, M.L., & Hillis, A.E. (2021). Lesion loci of impaired affective prosody: A systematic review of evidence from stroke. Brain and Cognition, 152, 105759. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2021.105759

Sheppard, S.M., Sebastian, R. (2021). Diagnosing and managing post-stroke aphasia. Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 21(2), 221-234. https://doi.org/10.1080/14737175.2020.1855976

Sheppard, S.M., Meier, E.L., Zezinka Durfee, A., Walker, A., Shea, J., Hillis, A.E. (2021). Characterizing subtypes and neural correlates of receptive aprosodia in acute right hemisphere stroke. Cortex, 141, 36-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2021.04.003

Sheppard, S.M., Keator, L.M., Breining, B.L., Wright, A.E., Saxena, S., Tippett, D.C., & Hillis, A.E. (2020). The right hemisphere ventral stream for emotional prosody identification: Evidence from acute stroke. Neurology, 94(10), e1013-e2020. https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000008870

Sebastian, R., Kim, J. H., Brenowitz, R., Tippett, D. C., Desmond, J. E., Celnik, P. A., & Hillis, A. E. (2020). Cerebellar neuromodulation improves naming in post-stroke aphasia. Brain communications, 2(2), fcaa179. https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcaa179 

Tippett, D.C., Breining, B., Goldberg, E., Meier, E, Sheppard, S.M., Sherry, E., Stockbridge, M., Suarez, A., Wright, A.E., & Hillis, A.E. (2020). Visuomotor Figure Construction and Visual Figure Delayed Recall and Recognition in Primary Progressive Aphasia. Aphasiology, 34(12), 1456-1470. 

Odolil, A., Wright, A.E., Keator, L.M., Sheppard, S.M., Breining, B.L., Tippett, D.C., & Hillis, A.E. (2020). Leukoaraiosis severity predicts rate of decline in primary progressive aphasia. Aphasiology, 34(3), 365-375. https:///doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2019.1594152 

Keator, L.M, Faria, A.V., Kim, K., Saxena, S., Wright, A., Sheppard, S.M., Breining, B.L., Tippett, D.C., & Hillis, A.E. (2020). An Efficient Bedside Measure Yields Prognostic Implications for Individuals with Acute Stroke. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, 33(3), 192-200.

Meier, E.L., Breining, B.L., Sheppard, S.M., Goldberg, E.B., Tippett, D.C., Tsapkini, K., Faria, A.V., & Hillis, A.E. (2020). White matter hyperintensities contribute to language deficits in primary progressive aphasia. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, 33(3), 179-191. https://doi.org/10.1097/WNN.0000000000000237

Meier, E.L., Sheppard, S.M., Goldberg, E.B., Head, C.R., Ubellacker, D.M., Walker, A., & Hillis, A.E. (2020). Naming errors and dysfunctional tissue metrics predict language recovery after acute left hemisphere stroke. Neuropsychologia, 148, 107651. https://10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107651

Sheppard, S.M., Love, T., Midgley, K.J., Shapiro, L.P., & Holcomb, P.J. (2019). Using prosody during sentence processing in aphasia: Evidence from temporal neural dynamics. Neuropsychologia, 134, 107197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107197

Kim, K., Adams, L., Wright, A., Wright, A., Sheppard, S.M., Breining, B.L., Rorden, C., Fridriksson, J., Bonilha, L., Rogalsy, C., Love, T., Hickok, G. & Hillis, A.E. (2019). Neural processing critical for distinguishing between speech sounds. Brain & Language, 197, 104677. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2019.104677

Keator, L.M., Wright, A.E., Saxena, S., Kim, K., Demsky, C., Sebastian, R., Sheppard, S.M., Breining, B., Hillis, A.E., & Tippett, D.C. (2019). Distinguishing logopenic from semantic and nonfluent variant primary progressive aphasia: Patterns of linguistic and behavioral correlations. Neurocase, 25(3), 98-105. https://doi.org/10.1080/13554794.2019.1625929

Wright A.E., Saxena, S., Sheppard, S.M., & Hillis, A.E. (2018). Selective impairments in components of affective prosody in neurologically impaired individuals. Brain and Cognition, 124, 29-36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2018.04.001

Patel, S., Oishi, K., Wright, A., Sutherland-Foggio, H., Saxena, S., Sheppard, S.M., & Hillis, A.E. (2018). Right hemisphere regions critical for expression of emotion through prosody. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 9, 224. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2018.00224

Sheppard, S.M., Midgley, K.J., Love, T., Shapiro, L.P., & Holcomb, P.J. (2018). Electrophysiological evidence for the interaction of prosody and thematic fit during sentence comprehension. Language, Cognition, & Neuroscience, 33(5), 547-562. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2017.1390143

Sheppard, S.M., Love, T., Midgley, K.J., Holcomb, P.J., & Shapiro, L.P. (2017). Electrophysiology of prosodic and lexical-semantic processing during sentence comprehension in aphasia. Neuropsychologia, 107, 9-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.10.023

Home

Welcome to the NeuroLinguistics And Brain Lab (NeuroLAB) at the University of Washington!

Our mission is to investigate brain mechanisms that underlie language and prosodic impairments in post-stroke aphasia, Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) and aprosodia. The overarching aim of our research is to use what we learn about these brain mechanisms to inform the development of innovative treatments. We use cutting-edge neuroimaging and behavioral methods to better understand the neurobiology of language and language recovery in several populations.

We also seek to understand how the neurotypical brain processes language and prosody. Studying the neural underpinnings in neurotypical populations helps us understand how language is organized in the brain.