Maria V. Ivanova
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Aphasia is the loss of the ability to speak or understand language, usually after a stroke. It affects more than two million people in the United States.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Neuroscience
Psychology
- Topics
aphasia
stroke recovery
high-intensity exercise
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2030
What they work on
- Test whether high-intensity exercise improves language, cognition, movement and emotional well-being in 110 stroke survivors with aphasia, compared with a matched low-intensity exercise control in a randomized trial.
- Determine how exercise-driven gains in physical fitness, measured with physiological fitness tests, relate to changes in language and cognitive performance.
- Identify changes in brain blood flow and cerebrovascular reactivity, measured with neuroimaging, that accompany behavioral improvements after high-intensity exercise.
More about the research
Speech-language therapy helps, but few people fully regain their language skills. This study asks whether hard physical exercise can add to recovery. Exercise could improve fitness and blood flow to the brain, but it has been largely overlooked as a supporting treatment for aphasia.
Why it matters
People with aphasia after stroke could gain a safe, low-cost addition to speech-language therapy. If high-intensity exercise proves helpful, clinicians could offer it on its own to boost physical health, thinking and well-being. They could also use it alongside standard therapy to improve language recovery.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Tae Kim
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Neuroscience
Test whether 12 months of aerobic exercise in the IGNITE trial changes cerebrovascular pulsatility and brain blood flow in adults aged 65–80, and whether these changes mediate improvements in cognition.
Sherrie Khadanga
University of Vermont, VT·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test in a randomized controlled trial whether high-intensity interval training plus high-intensity resistance training improves peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) and physical function more than standard moderate cardiac rehabilitation exercise.
Leonardo F Bonilha
University of South Carolina-Columbia, SC·Neuroscience
Test whether adding anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to audio-visual speech therapy improves naming more than sham stimulation, in a randomized Phase II/III trial of people with chronic Broca's aphasia.
The school
University of California-Berkeley: 46 labs on PI Pages, $1.1B a year on research, 825 research doctorates a year.
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