2009 — 2013 |
Reilly, James Joseph |
K23Activity Code Description: To provide support for the career development of investigators who have made a commitment of focus their research endeavors on patient-oriented research. This mechanism provides support for a 3 year minimum up to 5 year period of supervised study and research for clinically trained professionals who have the potential to develop into productive, clinical investigators. |
Structure of Semantic Memory and Its Measurement in Dementia and Aphasia
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): During the project period we will investigate the structure and deterioration of semantic memory (i.e., stored knowledge of word and object meaning) and develop an assessment of verbal and nonverbal semantic memory that can be used to stage impairment in dementia. The trainee's long-term goal is to develop and sustain this programmatic line of research as an independent investigator. The K-23 mentored award will foster this goal through a career development plan that emphasizes the following objectives: 1)To advance the trainee's knowledge of neurophysiological and neurobehavioral measurement techniques (e.g., electroencephalography, fMRI);2) To improve the trainee's knowledge of clinical research design and data analysis;and 3) To improve the trainee's skill in obtaining competitive research funding. The trainee will conduct the bulk of his research at the University of Florida, a major research university whose onsite resources include the McKnight Brain Institute (equipped with 3 Tesla Philips MR Scanner), Shands Hospital (level I trauma center with satellite memory disorders clinics for patient recruiting) and the Brain Rehabilitation Research Center (BRRC) of the Malcom Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center. In addition to substantial research infrastructure, UF offers an outstanding intellectual community with renowned researchers in cognitive neuroscience and clinical neuropsychology. Primary mentors for the K-23 include Bruce Crosson, Ph.D. and Leslie Gonzalez-Rothi, Ph.D. Additional contributors include Murray Grossman, M.D., Edith Kaan, Ph.D., Wind Cowles, Ph.D., Nadine Martin, Ph.D., and Lori Altmann, Ph.D. Specific aims are as follows: 1) We will assess the neural substrates of concept representation using both spatially sensitive (i.e., fMRI) and temporally sensitive (i.e, ERP) measures in support of a biologically-constrained theory of semantic cognition;2) We will develop a psychometrically valid measure of semantic memory with test-retest reliability that can be used to stage the intergrity of multiple components of semantic memory in dementia. Components of this battery will include knowledge: a) word meaning;b) perceptual features;c) abstract attributes;d) environmental context;e) associative relationships;and f) object function. RELEVANCE: The rapid growth of dementia in our aging population poses a clear public health crisis;differential diagnosis among the many dementia variants is crucial for effective medical management. Profiles of language and semantic memory can potentially provide diagnostic markers for distinguishing Alzheimer's disease from other dementias. However, lack of specificity inherent within existing scales limits their clinical utility.
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0.961 |
2014 — 2018 |
Reilly, James Joseph |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Semantic Memory and Language Learning in Alzheimer's Disease and Semantic Dementi @ Temple Univ of the Commonwealth
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): One of the most significant public health challenges facing much of the industrialized world today involves the management of Alzheimer's Disease and associated dementias. Although advances in molecular biology hold promise for identifying drug targets that will slow the progression of several forms of dementia, our healthcare system remains limited in its capacity to effectively treat macro-scale deficits in cognition and language This is especially true with respect to progressive disorders of language and human communication, many of which reflect the loss of conceptual knowledge (i.e., semantic memory). To date, the development of theoretically-principled language interventions for dementia has been limited by two factors. First, neuroscience lacks a cohesive understanding of how regional brain damage impacts the organization and integrity of human semantic memory. Second, traditional neuropsychological rehabilitation approaches assume that learning is not possible in the context of progressive memory disorders. We seek to overcome these limitations through two specific aims. In Specific Aim 1, we will examine the potential for language maintenance over a two year period as we train patients with Alzheimer's Disease and Semantic Dementia on a carefully-crafted, personalized micro-lexicon consisting of approximately 100 words. Patients will train on this highly constrained vocabulary via a combination of repeated naming and semantic feature generation. This treatment approach is unique in that it protects a finite lexicon against loss rather than training forgotten concepts ad hoc as disease severity worsens. We will examine correlations between regional cerebral gray matter, neuropsychological performance, and language retention across time via pre/post structural neuroimaging and repeated administration of a comprehensive cognitive battery. Specific Aim 2 represents a complementary investigation of the nature of the mechanisms underlying naming impairment in Alzheimer's Disease and Semantic Dementia. We will investigate several aspects of visual search organization as participants name trained and untrained pictures. The high temporal resolution of eyetracking will yield essential insights into the relationships between visual search patterns, naming accuracy, and potential effect of treatment in these patient populations. We will also correlate these observed patterns of visual search with regional gray matter atrophy. We will contextualize these aims within the context of a broader model of semantic organization that correlates patterns of semantic impairment and learning in these clinical populations.
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0.928 |
2017 — 2021 |
Martin, Nadine [⬀] Reilly, James Joseph |
R13Activity Code Description: To support recipient sponsored and directed international, national or regional meetings, conferences and workshops. |
The Eleanor M. Saffran Conference On Cognitive Neuroscience of Rehabilitation of Communication Disorders @ Temple Univ of the Commonwealth
Effective evidence-based clinical practice in the communication sciences and other health professions requires several stages of development from basic science to clinical practice. First, clinical research that generates diagnostic and treatment approaches depends on a sound theoretical foundation. The rehabilitation methods that are generated in clinical research then need to be further translated to a form that facilitates effective implementation in clinical or school settings. The process of knowledge translation to clinical practice faces several challenges, the most obvious of which is the practical differences between laboratory settings where interventions are developed and clinical settings where they are implemented. This conference addresses two other challenges to achieving true evidence based practice: (1) education of clinical practitioners about advances in theoretically and empirically supported rehabilitation methods and (2) communication between researchers and clinical practitioners to better effect implementation of clinical research into practice. For eleven years, the Eleanor M. Saffran Conference on the Cognitive Neuroscience and Rehabilitation of Communication Disorders has provided a forum in which researchers in basic and applied patient-oriented research, clinical practitioners, academic faculty and students with a common interest in language and other cognitive disorders can share knowledge and skills on each side of the translational ?gap?. This annual two-day conference focuses on a single topic relating to a specific language disorder (e.g., sentence processing disorders) or to a more general topic in rehabilitation research (e.g., outcome measures). The first day includes platform papers on current theories and practices emerging from rehabilitation research. The day includes ample time for discussion between the presenters and the audience which includes speech/language pathologists, neuropsychologists, psychologists, neurologists, linguists and students from these various disciplines, who share a common interest in cognitive neuroscience of communication disorders and their rehabilitation. The second day is a workshop that provides a forum for clinicians and researchers to address the practical considerations involved in translating laboratory developed diagnostic and treatment protocols to clinical practice. This component of the conference is unique and provides a real opportunity for researchers and clinicians to participate together in the translation/implementation process. A third important challenge of this conference is to fulfill its mission to extend the educational opportunities that this conference provides to students. We address this challenge in two ways. First, students at all academic levels (undergraduate to post-doctoral) can attend the conference for free. Second, there are ten competitive student scholar travel awards given to students at the doctoral or post-doctoral level. The award includes travel, accommodations, hotel, and a chance to present their research in a poster session on the first day of the conference. This program has been proved to be enormously successful, with awardees coming from across the nation and worldwide.
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0.928 |
2019 |
Reilly, James Joseph |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Pupillometry as a Physiological Biomarker For Preclinical Dementia in Minority Cognitive Aging @ Temple Univ of the Commonwealth
Project Summary / Abstract Across much of the industrialized world people are living longer. Although longevity has many positive aspects, the changing demographics of cognitive aging are placing unprecedented demands upon our healthcare system. We are currently facing an epidemic of Alzheimer's Disease and associated disorders, the economic and psychosocial burden of which is immense. Our healthcare system is unprepared for the exponential rise in dementia incidence as the demand for skilled, institutionalized care outstrips our capacity to provide such care. We must improve the medical management of dementia to promote aging-in-place such that patients maintain functional independence for as long as possible. Early detection is a key component of effective management. Dementia diagnosis currently relies upon the expression of cognitive impairment. The problem with this approach is that it is reactive. By the time cognitive impairment is observed, the brain is often irreversibly damaged. Vital improvements in early detection will necessarily involve integrating physiological biomarkers with behavioral change. Here we will investigate the human pupillary response both to light and to cognitive load as a predictor for preclinical dementia. We will characterize pupillary response behavior over the span of one year in a cohort of older African American adults at an elevated risk for dementia, relative to neurotypical adults. We will examine relations between pupil response behavior and cognitive functioning. In a separate neuroimaging study, we will investigate relationships between brain structure and pupillary behavior by pairing eyetracking with functional MRI with specific attention to brain regions that are vulnerable to dementia pathology. These studies will provide normative data on the human pupillary response in cognitive aging, against which diagnostic contrasts for pathology (i.e., presence of dementia) will be gauged. 1
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0.928 |
2019 — 2021 |
Reilly, James Joseph |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Early Detection and Treatment of Emerging Cognitive-Linguistic Impairment in Minority Cognitive Aging and Primary Progressive Aphasia @ Temple Univ of the Commonwealth
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Dementia is among the most daunting public health crises facing industrialized nations. Many countries, including the United States,1 have recently adopted comprehensive national dementia strategies.2 The US National Dementia Strategy (section 2B) has identified early diagnosis and links to community treatment services as pillars of its management plan. The availability of evidence-based outpatient treatment for progressive language impairments remains exceedingly sparse. In 2014, we began to address this void via a longitudinal intervention targeting maintenance of a core vocabulary consisting of 100 words over two years. This caregiver-friendly treatment is showing great promise for promoting the retention of key vocabulary in frontotemporal degeneration and Alzheimer's Disease. A secondary aim involved evaluating prediction of later language forgetting. We have learned much during this initial project period, and its renewal has the potential to tell us much more. Our current proposal consists of three aims, all of which directly align both with the US National Dementia Strategy and the mission of our funding institute (i.e., the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders).3 In Specific Aim 1 (SA1), we will evaluate the long-term effectiveness of a regimen of noninvasive brain stimulation (transcranial direct current stimulation) delivered over the anterior temporal lobes as an adjuvant to our ongoing semantic behavioral treatment. We will do so using a crossover design where two groups of patients with semantic variant Primary Progressive Aphasia complete sham and active stimulation conditions paired with behavioral treatment (order counterbalanced). We will subsequently follow this patient cohort over two years to evaluate the durability of treatment gains. In SA2, we will evaluate predictors of emerging cognitive-linguistic impairment in a vastly underserved population (i.e., older African American adults). We will identify older adults who are at increased risk for conversion to mild cognitive impairment as indexed by global cognitive and language measures. We will then follow and characterize this prospective cohort using sensitive behavioral (gaze patterns during visual confrontation naming) and neuropsychological markers. Finally, in SA3 we will evaluate representation, processing, and shifts in abstract word meaning as functions of age, pathology, and individual differences (e.g., vocabulary size, years of education) using machine learning. This renewal reflects the continuation of a productive and rigorous line of research that will yield complementary data about human semantic memory, best practices in promoting language maintenance, and variability of age-associated language change.
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0.928 |