Jacquie Kurland of UMass Communication Disorders will be presenting in the Cognitive Brown Bag series in Tobin 521B at noon. Everyone is welcome. The abstract for her talk:

Evidence increasingly suggests that intensive language-action therapy, such as Constraint-Induced Language Therapy (CILT), can take advantage of the brain’s potential to overcome learned non-use, even in chronic moderate-to-severe aphasia. It is believed that CILT may bring about rapid improvements in naming by jumpstarting systems that have been deprived of opportunities for experience-dependent learning. However, many questions remain regarding which aspects of the treatment are most effective, why the treatment works for some but not others, and importantly, what the mechanisms are supporting language recovery in post-stroke aphasia. The current study examines changes in behavior and fMRI BOLD activation in 20 individuals with chronic aphasia who underwent two weeks of intensive language therapy ­ with or without constraint to speech.