Areas of Expertise
Virtual Reality and Assistive Devices
NCRRN investigators (Buxbaum, Coslett, Fink, Hart, Schwartz, Stefanatos) have experience in research on technology applications in language, memory, and hemispatial neglect, including the use of virtual reality in assessment and treatment, and assistive devices as cognitive orthoses.
Annotated Citations
- A. Scherer M, Hart T, Kirsch N, Schulteis M: Assistive technologies for cognitive disabilities. In: Grabois M, Ed. Critical Reviews in Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, 2005, 17(3):195-215.
This chapter reviews controlled research to date on the use of electronic cognitive orthoses for acquired brain injury and discusses research needs for engineering and user interfaces.(TH)
- Linebarger, M.C., Schwartz, M.F., Romania, J.R., Kohn, S.E. & Stephens, D.L. (2000). Grammatical encoding in aphasia: Evidence from a ‘processing prosthesis.’ Brain and Language, 75, 416-427.
This paper introduced a new computer-based communication intervention (now known as SentenceShaperTM) that supports spoken language production in aphasia by minimizing the temporal and working memory demands of real-time speech. By showing that this assistance alone (i.e., without support for word-retrieval) enabled users with agrammatic aphasia to produce longer and more structured utterances than they were capable of producing spontaneously, this study lent support to accounts of agrammatism that implicate processing limitations, as opposed to loss of knowledge. Information about the SentenceShaper is available at www.psycholinguistic-technologies.com. (RF)