Resume

• 2014

  Genesis Healthcare System

  Penn State College of Health and Human Development

  Boston University

  Genesis Healthcare System

  Assistant Professor

  Penn State College of Health and Human Development

  Student

  Research Assistant

  Studied Speech Language Pathology with a focus in aphasia.\n\nResearch:\nMaster's Thesis -- Examined abstractness as a form of complexity in a generative word-finding treatment based on the Complexity Account of Treatment Efficacy. \n\nStudied the differential patterns of neural activation of abstract and concrete word processing in healthy older adults using fMRI. \n\nWorked with Drs. Risto Miikkulainen

  Uli Grasemann

  and Swathi Kiran on a project aimed at developing and evaluating a computational model of language processing in bilingual aphasia.

  The University of Texas at Austin

  PhD Student

  Research Assistant

  Lecturer

  Lab Manager

  Research:\nExamining neuroplasticity related to theory-based treatment in persons with aphasia using fMRI.\n\nCompared abstract and concrete word processing in persons with aphasia with healthy older adults.\n \nWorked with Drs. Kiran

  Caplan

  and Waters on a sentence comprehension treatment study

  assisting in the development of stimuli and treatment procedures

  as well as recruiting and treating patients.\n\nWorked with Drs. Kiran

  Gibson

  and Fedorenko examining the effect of plausibility on sentence comprehension in aphasia.\n\nLecturer:\nCognition and Neural Bases in Fall 2011\n\nGuest Lecturer:\nCognition and Neural Bases (various topics Fall 2009 and 2010)\nModels of Language Processing Across the Lifespan: Semantics (Fall 2009)\nLanguage and the Brain (various topics Fall/Spring 2008-2009)\n\nLab Manager:\nTrained students in the lab on policies and procedures

  including how to test and treat patients and how to analyze behavioral and fMRI data. \nHelped develop a lab wiki to streamline training and establish protocols.\nRan day-to-day operations of the lab

  Boston University

  Cognitive Neuroscience Society

  Academy of Aphasia

  American Speech Language Hearing Association

  Organization for Human Brain Mapping

• 2009

  Ph.D.

  Speech Language and Hearing Sciences

  Boston University

• 2006

  M.A.

  Speech Language Pathology

  The University of Texas at Austin

• 2005

  National Student Speech Language Hearing Association

  Boston University

  Dudley Allen Sargent Research Fund Award

  Boston University Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences

  Donna R. Fox Scholarship

  Texas Speech-Language and Hearing Foundation

  Dudley Allen Sargent Research Fund Award

  Boston University Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences

  F31 Fellowship: Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award

  NIH NIDCD

• 2004

  B.A.

  Linguistics

  Communication Sciences and Disorders

  NSSLHA - UT chapter

  publicity chair

  The University of Texas at Austin

• Boston University Conference on Language Development

  session chair

  abstract reviewer

  Research Assistant

  In Dr. Richard Meier’s lab with Dr. Ginger Pizer

  I assisted in the examination of sign modification and joint attention of Deaf parents and their children during the acquisition of American Sign Language by analyzing and coding videos of the interactions between Deaf parents and their children. This work was published in Sign Language Studies.\n\nIn Dr. Ron Gillam’s lab with Dr. Maya Clark

  I assisted in the exploration of dialect use and dialect change in children with specific language impairment who speak African American English

  by analyzing and coding the utterances of several children with specific language impairment who speak African American English.

  The University of Texas at Austin

  Research

  Neurophysiology

  fMRI

  Statistics

  Treatment

  Neuropsychology

  Language Processing

  Writing

  Aphasia

  SPSS

  Psychology

  Microsoft Office

  Language Disorders

  Clinical

  Rehabilitation

  Data Analysis

  Cognitive Neuroscience

  PowerPoint

  Neuroimaging

  Teaching

  Analysis of abstract and concrete word processing in persons with aphasia and age-matched neurologically healthy adults using fMRI

  The concreteness effect occurs in both normal and language-disordered populations. Research suggests that abstract and concrete concepts elicit differing neural activation patterns in healthy young adults

  but this is undocumented in persons with aphasia (PWA). Three PWA and three age-matched controls were scanned using fMRI while processing abstract and concrete words. Consistent with current theories of abstract and concrete word processing

  abstract words elicited activation in verbal areas

  whereas concrete words additionally activated multimodal association areas. PWA show greater differences in neural activation than age-matched controls between abstract and concrete words

  possibly due to an exaggerated concreteness effect.

  Analysis of abstract and concrete word processing in persons with aphasia and age-matched neurologically healthy adults using fMRI

  Rajani Sebastian

  Background\nThe typicality effect is present in neurologically intact populations for natural

  ad-hoc

  and well-defined categories. Although sparse

  there is evidence of typicality effects in persons with chronic stroke aphasia for natural and ad-hoc categories. However

  it is unknown exactly what influences the typicality effect in this population.\nAims\nThe present study explores the possible contributors to the typicality effect in persons with aphasia by analyzing and comparing data from both normal and language-disordered populations

  from persons with aphasia with more semantic impairment versus those with less semantic impairment

  and from two types of categories with very different boundary structure (ad-hoc vs. well-defined).\nMethods and procedures\nA total of 40 neurologically healthy adults (20 older

  20 younger) and 35 persons with aphasia (20 LSI (less-semantically impaired) patients

  15 MSI (more-semantically impaired) patients) participated in the study. Participants completed one of two tasks: either category verification for ad-hoc categories or category verification for well-defined categories.\nOutcomes and results\nNeurologically healthy participants showed typicality effects for both ad-hoc and well-defined categories. MSI patients showed a typicality effect for well-defined categories

  but not for ad-hoc categories

  whereas LSI patients showed a typicality effect for ad-hoc categories

  but not for well-defined categories.\nConclusions\nThese results suggest that the degree of semantic impairment mediates the typicality effect in persons with aphasia depending on the structure of the category.

  Typicality Mediates Performance during Category Verification in Both Ad-hoc and Well-defined Categories

  Sandberg

  The University of Texas at Austin