CORE--CLINICAL ASSESSMENT

Boston University Medical Campus, Boston MA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Clinical Assessment Core of the Aphasia Research Core Center recruits and provides comprehensive assessments of research participants, and coordinates their participation in all research projects associated with the Core Center. Brain-damaged individuals may be quite dissimilar in their patterns of cognitive dysfunction. Research projects affiliated with the Aphasia Research Core Center are thus dependent on a comprehensive understanding of each participant?s neurological, neurobehavioral, neuropsychological, and language status. The Clinical Assessment Core examination includes four major components: (1) a medical/neurological evaluation conducted by a behavioral neurologist, (2) a speech/language evaluation conducted by a speech-language pathologist, (3) a neuropsychological evaluation conducted by a neuropsychologist, and (4) neuroimaging performed by the radiology service of the VA Boston Healthcare System or Boston Medical Center and interpreted by the assessment core neuroimaging experts. In addition to the recruitment and testing of participants with left-or right-hemispheric brain damage, the Clinical Assessment Core also recruits and screens control subjects. The Aphasia Research Center has been providing recruitment and clinical assessment services to Boston-area aphasia researchers associated with the Center since its founding in the 1960s and is internationally recognized for its expertise in the assessment and treatment of people with aphasia. Researchers rely on these services to identify appropriate candidates for their experimental investigations of aphasia; and design their research proposals on the assumption that the Aphasia Research Center will be there to provide needed recruitment and assessment services. The current proposal for the Aphasia Research Core Center allows for the continued collaboration between clinicians and researchers that has proven to be so fruitful in years past.