Neurolinguistics Laboratory

Lab Meetings: Neurolinguistics Lab meetings are held weekly.
Contact loraine.obler@gmail.com to find out the current times.

Mission Statement

The Neurolinguistics Laboratory has as its goal to understand the organization and processing of language in the adult brain. Particular foci of interest are:

the language changes associated with aphasia
the way agrammatism manifests differently, and similarly, across languages
the language changes of healthy aging and dementia
the way languages are organized in, and utilized by, the brain of the bilingual or polyglot
how dyslexics (monolingual or bilingual) succeed in learning to read
why dyslexics have difficulty learning a 'foreign' language

Current Research

Ongoing research in the Neurolinguistics Lab includes projects on cognitive underpinnings of dyslexia, brain resources available for language performance in older adults, agrammatism in Spanish-speakers, Heritage-language Haitian-Creole speakers, lexical retrieval in discourse in older adults, sentence comprehension in older adults (as it links to brain regions available, underlying executive functions, different syntactic structures, eye-tracking).

Research with colleagues in other labs includes these topics in conjunction with the NIH-funded Language in the Aging Brain Lab at the Boston VA Healthcare System where Prof. Obler is co-PI with Martin Albert, with Mira Goral on recovery from multilingual aphasia and, with Klara Marton, on executive function underpinnings of comprehension. As well, Prof. Obler has been working with Roelien Bastiaanse and Tom Abuom on agrammatism in Swahili and with Barbara Moser-Mercer, Miriam Shlesinger, Ingrid Kurz and Minhua Li on Cognition in Simultaneous Interpreters' Career Trajectories (an AIIC-funded project)

Photo Gallery

Principal Investigator:

Loraine K. Obler, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor
Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences,
Graduate School and University Center,
City University of New York,
365 Fifth Ave
New York, New York 10016-4309

Phone: 212-817-8809
Fax: 212-817-1537
email: loraine.obler@gmail.com

Lab Highlights:

Loraine K. Obler. Treating Aphasia: From Words to Family. Molley College. Oct. 15, 2010

Mira Goral, Erika Levy, Tali Swann-Stemberg & Loraine K.Obler. Frequency and Word-Length Factors and Lexical Retrieval in Sentence Production in Aphasia. Academy of Aphasia, Oct. 25, 2010.

Hyun, J., Obler, L. K., Spiro, III, A., Goral, M., Schnyer, D., Kim, D-S., & Albert, M. L. Bilateral Hemispheric Involvement in Sentence Processing in Older Adults. Neurobiology of Language, Nov. 11, 2010

Klara Marton, Naomi Eichorn, Luca Campanelli, Jungmee Yoon, Loraine Obler, Mira Goral. Executive Functions & Language across the Life Span. ASHA Convention, Nov. 18, 2010.

Daniel Kempler, Maria Boklan, Caroline Cano, Peggy S. Conner, Kristen K. Maul, Youngmi Park, & Mira Goral. Constraint-Induced Aphasia Therapy: What Are the Best Outcome Measures? ASHA Convention, November 18, 2010

Loraine K. Obler, Amy Vogel, Luca Campanelli, Vikas Grover, Sethu Karthekeyan, Youngmi Park, Jungmee Yoon. 1908 Debates about Language Area: Broca's Area or the Insula? ASHA Convention, Nov.19, 2010

Vikas Grover, Sethu Karthikeyan , Hia Datta, JungMoon Hyun & Loraine K. Obler. Manifestation of Agrammatic Aphasia in Different Languages & Clinical Implications. ASHA Convention, Nov. 19, 2010

Amee Shah, Swati Kiran, Hia Datta, Radhika Aravamudhan, Vikas Grover, & Loraine Obler. Cultural Competence in Serving Asian Indian Clients: Linguistic & Sociocultural Aspects. ASHA Convention, Nov. 19, 2010