It is estimated that one quarter of people who suffer a stroke have aphasia — communication problems affecting speech, understanding, reading and writing. People with aphasia find many everyday activities hard or impossible, such as shopping, making a phone call, reading a magazine or joining in a conversation. Some stroke sufferers improve spontaneously, but the brain’s processes of recovery from stroke-related language problems are not well understood, and there is currently no drug treatment to improve the chance of recovery.
Using specialised brain imaging techniques, Dr Warren aims to identify the changes in organisation of speech processing after stroke that are associated with successful recovery of language comprehension. By improving understanding of the processes of language recovery after stroke, this research will provide a basis for developing new approaches to treatment for this disabling condition.