SDSU Cognition and Language in Aphasia Lab

07/27/2026

Congratulations to Dr. Christina Sen and Dr. JoAnn Silkes on their newly published paper! This paper explores the role that attentional shifting may play in how people with aphasia process language.

Read it using the link below, or find it in our bio under "Full Research Articles." Check it out!

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2026.1833957/full

07/14/2026

Check out this amazing new video from Angie Cauthorn at the Brain Friends Podcast. https://fb.watch/Imc171bgVA/

Send a message to learn more

06/02/2026

Happy Aphasia Awareness Month! Aphasia is an acquired language disorder. It can lead to challenges with thinking of words, talking, understanding, reading, or writing. It typically occurs as a result of a stroke or other injury on the left side of the brain.

According to the National Aphasia Association, the disorder affects over 2 million people in the U.S. We're raising awareness so that we can promote understanding, reduce stigma, and better support this community!

Stay tuned for more posts from us this month!

Visit the National Aphasia Association website [aphasia.org] for more information on this initiative!

05/30/2026

CLAL Lab Director JoAnn Silkes presented at the Clinical Aphasiology Conference this week with colleagues from the Aphasia Psychological Care Research Network, Drs. Leora Cherney, Rebecca Hunting Pompon, and Deena Schwen Blackett. There was lots of interest in their topic of how psychosocial well-being is assessed in people with aphasia.

05/30/2026

The CLAL is well represented at this year's Clinical Aphasiology Conference in Pittsburgh! The newly-minted Dr. Christina Sen had some great conversation around her poster on her dissertation project, which investigated attentional cues to facilitate word retrieval in sentences.

05/23/2026

Celebrating the CLAL's newly-minted Dr. Christina Sen! Under the co-mentorship of CLAL director Dr. JoAnn Silkes and Language and Neuroscience Group director Dr. Tracy Love, she successfully defended her dissertation, titled The Implicit-Explicit Continuum: Attention and Lexical Access in Aphasia. Congratulations, Christina!!

05/18/2026

We continued celebrating our graduating members of the CLAL this weekend as undergraduate Research Assistants Caden and Bella marked their accomplishments. These two have taken a major lead on on a few different projects in our lab for almost two years and are now going off to graduate programs in speech-language pathology. We thank them for their great work and wish them both so much success as they continue on their journeys!

05/14/2026

Celebrating our new MA graduates from the CLAL and everyone else graduating today from the SDSU School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. We're grateful that these students chose to spend some of their time at SDSU in our lab and wish them well as they blaze their trails forward! We'll miss you!

05/06/2026

Sharing a free community resource!📣 Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside offers free therapeutic group classes for adults who have completed or are finishing therapy services. Groups are led by licensed therapists. Flyers attached in English and Spanish! This is not one of our programs-- just passing it along as a resource!

🧠 Stroke Exercise Group: Wednesdays, 2-3 PM
🗣️ Communication Group: Wednesdays, 3-4 PM
🏃 Parkinson's Exercise Group: Thursdays, 3-4 PM

📍 4002 Vista Way, Oceanside | Call (760) 405-2505 to confirm room info

04/28/2026

Want to participate in research? We're seeking people (18+) with aphasia that live in San Diego to participate in our study! Our goal is to find new ways to help people think of words. In the study, you would do independent therapy practice. There will be mostly virtual sessions and some in-person sessions, and you will be paid!

Call us at 619-594-7880 OR email at [email protected] (but email might not be confidential).