Rhonda Friedman: Aphasia Research Gives Hope to Patients

• RSS
• Print

Millions of Americans suffer from a disorder known as aphasia, the root of which comes from the Greek aphatos, or “speechless.” Rhonda Friedman, PhD, professor of Neurology, believes it is important that those afflicted with the disorder—who number greater than those with Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, or muscular dystrophy—are given hope.

Friedman directs Georgetown University Medical Center’s Center for Aphasia Research and Rehabilitation (CARR), which works to find new treatment options for patients with aphasia, in order to optimize and lengthen their lives with their families and loved ones.

Although not a result of cognitive or intellectual impairment, aphasia severely limits a person’s ability to speak and understand others, and most people experience difficulty reading and writing. It is most often caused by a stroke or other brain injury. Dr. Friedman’s research explores how language is processed in a healthy brain, how language breaks down in a brain damaged by stroke, head injury, or dementia, and how the brain recovers language functions.

Friedman and her CARR colleagues’ understanding of the neuropsychological and neural mechanisms of aphasia and normal cognition have led to increased successes in the treatment of the loss of language functions from stroke, head injury, or dementia. Friedman’s lab uses techniques such as behavioral studies, treatment studies, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), event-related potentials (ERP), and eye-tracking.

Her most recent research has involved the development of a paradigm designed to slow the word finding difficulties (anomia) of dementia non-pharmacologically. Since the ability to read words lasts longer than naming in dementia, the study pairs pictures of objects and family members with their written names, to strengthen the brain’s connections before they begin to weaken due to disease.

Friedman’s current clinical study involves patients with primary, progressive aphasia—which is caused by problems with language-processing mechanisms; the ultimate goal of her study is to evaluate whether a treatment may be beneficial for patients in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

Aphasia’s impact on a person’s ability to communicate is often frustrating, and while treatment options are improving, effective therapies take time to develop.

Friedman states simply: “There is never a time to give up hope… in a patient’s recovery, you don’t tell them to give up. With the right intervention and appropriate targeting, the connections in the brain can be strengthened. We are moving closer to a cure.”

By Susan Payne, GUMC Communications

For more information, please visit Friedman’s Lab online.