At the Cognitive Rehabilitation And Neurolinguistics In Aphasia Lab (CRANIAL) we aim to gain an understanding of the underlying language and cognitive deficits resulting from stroke and neurodegenerative diseases. We also conduct clinical treatment research to determine how to best enhance recovery processes. Almost 800,000 people suffer from strokes every year in the United States, and strokes will frequently lead to short- and long-term deficits. Furthermore, currently 4-5 million people are living with dementia in the United States. Yet, we do not have a good understanding of which neurological and treatment factors best drive recovery in patients who have had strokes, or the factors that help decelerate the progression of language loss in patients with dementia.
At CRANIAL, under the guidance of Dr. Sheppard, a team of scientists and clinicians including Chapman graduate students and external collaborators apply cutting edge neuroimaging and behavioral methods to better understand the mechanisms that lead to language deficits in stroke and neurodegenerative diseases. We study the fundamental cognitive and linguistic processes that characterize the deficit in patients with stroke-based aphasia. We also research communication deficits associated with right hemisphere stroke, with an emphasis on understanding difficulties expressing and understanding emotion in speech (emotional prosody – changes in pitch, rhythm, rate, and loudness that indicates emotion).
CRANIAL is also developing treatments that use neurostimulation techniques like transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to enhance traditional language therapy in people with stroke-based aphasia and Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA). PPA is a neurological syndrome caused by neurological diseases like frontotemporal lobar degeneration and Alzheimer’s disease. There are very few evidence-based programs designed to treat language loss in PPA. We are conducting clinical trials to determine whether brain stimulation paired with language therapy will help slow the loss of language in patients with PPA.
Dr. Shannon M. Sheppard
Location: Harry and Diane Rinker Health Science Campus