Swathi Kiran@Center for Brain Recovery at BU

This morning, the Center for Brain Recovery received a special visit from Boston University's community resource dog, Bean!

Bean immediately brightened up the office and brought plenty of play and cuddles to the CBR team.

Thanks for stopping by our center, Bean!

Marom Bikson, Professor of Biomedical Engineering at City College of New York, opened the first Symposium at the Neuroscience of the Everyday World (N.E.W.) Conference 2025, held at Boston University. Symposium #1 was entitled: Neuroprosthetics and Neuromodulation from Clinic to Daily Life. Bikson N.E.W. Conference 2025 | Marom Bikson: Wearable Disposable Electrotherapy

What if electrotherapy was available like a band-aid?

At #NEWconf2025, Marom Bikson presented his team's research on Wearable Disposable Electrotherapy.

Learn more by watching his full talk on the CBR YouTube channel

Join us Monday, September 29th from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm ET for a talk by Rhoda Au, Professor at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, as well as a PI of the Framingham Heart Study Brain Aging Program.

Register now at http://bit.ly/47ORaie

Congratulations! The impact of your work is huge across so many fields!

#BilingualAphasia #Stroke #AphasiaRecovery #Generalization

💡 Takeaway: Semantic feature-based treatment promotes gains across languages and linguistic domains in Spanish-English bilinguals with aphasia
💭 Next: How do dose, intensity, and individual differences shape transfer?
📂 Open dataset coming: http://osf.io/mcu36

Results showed:
1) Improvement for trained and untrained naming targets (direct transfer)
2) Gains in select semantic processing tasks (near transfer)
3) Improved overall language function (WAB-AQ) but not domain-general cog (both far transfer)
🎉 Benefits across both languages

Measurement of cross-language and cross-domain generalization following semantic feature-based anomia treatment in bilingual aphasia Semantic feature-based treatment (SFT), which engages the semantic network by repeatedly targeting retrieval of conceptual features to improve lexical-semantic access, has shown promise for facilit...

🧠 Goal: To examine patterns of near/far transfer and cross-language generalization following naming therapy

👥 48 Spanish-English bilinguals with chronic aphasia
🏥Therapy: Semantic feature-based treatment
Read the full paper: 🔗

📢 New Bilingual Aphasia Research!

“Measurement of cross-language and cross-domain generalization following semantic feature-based anomia treatment in bilingual aphasia”

By Marissa Russell-Meill, Erin Carpenter, Manuel J. Marte, Michael Scimeca, Claudia Peñaloza & Swathi Kiran

Excited to be editing this special issue with @qzhever.bsky.social on this super current topic of “Neural Basis of Language Processing in the Wild” see link for submission guidelines

Boston University Center for Brain Recovery

Over the coming weeks, we’ll continue releasing presentations from the N.E.W. Conference. Subscribe to stay updated: youtube.com/@bucenterfor...

His presentation highlights his research into human navigational behavior across diverse global populations. Using innovative tools such as video games, Spiers and his team have uncovered new insights into how individuals orient themselves in complex environments—from urban grids to open waters.

YouTube video by Boston University Center for Brain Recovery N.E.W. Conference 2025 | Hugo Spiers (Keynote): Studying Navigation in Cities and on the Ocean

Hugo Spiers' keynote presentation, Studying Navigation in Cities and on the Ocean, from the 2025 Neuroscience of the Everyday World Conference is now live on the CBR YouTube channel. @hugospiers.bsky.social
youtu.be/M35KDgqJI4w?...

Join us Monday, September 15th from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm ET for a talk by Simona Mancini, Ikerbasque Research Associate Professor / Neurolinguistics and Aphasia group leader at the Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language.

Register now at https://bit.ly/45LjrF1

💡 Takeaway: Integrating rs-fMRI + DTI + structure better captures post-stroke brain reorganization.
Predicting severity is the first step—next is predicting recovery.
📂 Open dataset coming: http://osf.io/mcu36
#Neurorehab #Stroke #MLinNeuro #AphasiaRecovery

Limitations:
⚠️ Fewer data points for severe aphasia (WAB-R AQ < 20)
⚠️ Minor processing differences across cohorts
Still, robust findings with nested cross-validation and supervised feature selection (RFE) 💪

🔥 SVR outperformed RF consistently.
💡 Best combo = resting-state functional connectivity (rs-fMRI FC) + spared white matter (PSW) + demographics
✅ RMSE: 15.82
✅ r: 0.73
💡 Best single predictor = (rs-fMRI FC)

#MachineLearning #Neuroimaging

🧠 Goal: Predict aphasia severity (WAB-R AQ) post-stroke using machine learning + multimodal MRI
🏥 76 individuals with chronic aphasia
🧪 Imaging: Structural MRI, DTI, rs-fMRI
🧮 Models: Support Vector Regression (SVR) and Random Forest (RF)

Aphasia severity prediction using a multi-modal machine learning approach The present study examined an integrated multiple neuroimaging modality (T1 structural, Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), and resting-state FMRI (rsFMRI…

📢 New in NeuroImage:
“Aphasia severity prediction using a multi-modal machine learning approach”
by Xinyi Hu, Maria Varkanitsa, Emerson Kropp, Margrit Betke, Prakash Ishwar & Swathi Kiran
🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
#Aphasia #NeuroAI #StrokeRecovery

📢 New Research from the BU Center for Brain Recovery:
CBR researchers examined how to predict aphasia severity (WAB-R AQ) post-stroke using machine learning + multimodal MRI.

Read more: doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...

#Stroke #AphasiaRecovery #MachineLearning #Neuroimaging #Neurorehab #MLinNeuro #Research

I think most of the treatments reviewed in this paper target practicing phonological access- it’s actually quite non specific IMO - that’s why the review finds generalization to untrained words and in some treatments even the control words

Swathi Kiran Selected as Incoming Editor-in-Chief of JSLHR - ASHA Journals Academy The Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research (JSLHR) is pleased to announce the selection of Swathi Kiran, PhD, CCC-SLP as incoming editor-in-chief of the language section of the journal. Dr....

Dr. Swathi Kiran Selected as Incoming Editor-in-Chief of #JSLHR. Dr. Kiran will begin her term on January 1, succeeding Dr. Julie Washington. Welcome, Dr. Kiran, & thanks to Dr. Washington! on.asha.org/4orylYe

@sigperspectives.bsky.social @csdisseminate.bsky.social @bostonu.bsky.social

Over 60% of this year's Neuroscience of the Everyday World (N.E.W.) Conference attendees were students/trainees!

Thank you to all of our student/trainee attendees who shared their research in the form of a poster or talk and congratulations to our 18 travel award winners!

#NEWconf2025

Thank you to all of our Day 2 speakers, sponsors, and attendees!

And thank you to our collaborators, Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute and Boston University Neurophotonics Center. #NEWconf2025

Symposium 3 Speakers:
Daniel Ferris, University of Florida
Simon Ladouce, University of Leuven
Matthew Rizzo, University of Nebraska Medical Center
Ying Choon Wu, University of California, San Diego

Keynote Speaker:
Maryam Shanechi, University of Southern California

Symposium 2 Speakers:
R. James Cotton, Northwestern University
Mary Czerwinski, University of Washington
Constantin Rothkopf, Technical University of Darmstadt

Day 2 of the 🧠Neuroscience of the Everyday World (N.E.W.) Conference featured engaging presentations from global leading researchers, with discussions about #AI, sensing & modeling for #neurorehabilitation, and real-world #brainscience.



Keynote Speaker:

Neurotechnology Panelists:
Dan Adams, Neuralink
Christoph Guger, g.tec medical engineering
Katherine Perdue, Kernel
Brett Wingeier, Ph.D., NeuroPace

Thank you to all of our Day 1 speakers, panelists, and attendees! #NEWconf2025

Keynote Speaker:
Hugo Spiers, University College London

Symposium Speakers:
Marom Bikson, City College of New York
Jennifer Collinger, University of Pittsburgh
Doris Wang, University of California, San Francisco

Day 1 of the 🧠Neuroscience of the Everyday World Conference included talks from notable researchers and industry experts from around the world, discussing topics of #neuroprosthetics #neuromodulation and #neurotechnology.