Chaleece Sandberg

Education

2014 Ph.D. in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University

2008 M.A. in Speech-Language Pathology, The University of Texas at Austin

2005 B.A. in Linguistics, The University of Texas at Austin

Research Interests

I am interested in finding ways of optimizing language therapy for persons with aphasia. Specifically, I am curious what neuroplastic processes are taking place during successful therapy and how to enhance these processes. I am also interested in how cortical reorganization due to aging affects the way we interpret the cortical reorganization that results from language therapy in persons with aphasia who are older adults.

Dissertation

Examined neurophysiological changes related to direct training and generalization effects of training abstract words in a specific context-category. As previously shown, training abstract words promotes generalization to concrete words. fMRI results suggest that both direct training and generalization elicit increases in activation and functional connectivity, specifically related to abstract and concrete word processing, respectively.

Publications

Sandberg, C. & Kiran, S. (in press). How justice can affect jury: Training abstract words promotes generalization to concrete words in patients with aphasia. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation.

Kiran, S., Sandberg, C., Gray, T., Ascenso, E., & Kester, E. (2013). Rehabilitation in Bilingual Aphasia: Evidence for Within-and Between-Language Generalization. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 22(2), S298.

Sandberg, C. & Kiran, S. (2013). Analysis of abstract and concrete noun processing in persons with aphasia and age-matched controls using fMRI. Neurocase. doi:10.1080/13554794.2013.770881

Kiran, S., Caplan, D., Sandberg, C., Levy, J., Berardino, A., Ascenso, E., Villard, S., & Tripodis, Y. (2012). Development of a Theoretically Based Treatment for Sentence Comprehension Deficits in Individuals With Aphasia. Am J Speech Lang Pathol, 21(2), S88-102. doi: 10.1044/1058-0360(2012/11-0106

Levy, J., Hoover, E., Waters, G., Kiran, S., Caplan, D., Berardino, A., & Sandberg, C. (2012). Effects of Syntactic Complexity, Semantic Reversibility, and Explicitness on Discourse Comprehension in Persons With Aphasia and in Healthy Controls. Am J Speech Lang Pathol, 21(2), S154-165. doi: 10.1044/1058-0360(2012/11-0104

Kiran, S., Grasemann, U., Sandberg, C., & Miikkulainen, R. (2012). A computational account of bilingual aphasia rehabilitation. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Available on CJO doi:10.1017/S1366728912000533. NIHMSID #407826.

Sandberg, C., Sebastian, R., & Kiran, S. (2012). Typicality mediates performance during category verification in both ad-hoc and well-defined categories. Journal of Communication Disorders, 45(2), 69-83. doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2011.12.004.

Sebastian, R., Kiran, S., & Sandberg, C. (2012). Semantic processing in Spanish–English bilinguals with aphasia. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 25(4), 240-262. doi: 10.1016/j.jneuroling.2012.01.003

Kiran, S & Sandberg, C. (2011). Treating communication problems in individuals with disordered language. R. Peach and L. Shapiro (Eds.). Cognition and Acquired Language Disorders: A Process-Oriented Approach. Elselvier. London. Pp 298-326.

Grasemann, U., Sandberg, C., Kiran, S., & Miikkulainen, R. (2011). Impairment and Rehabilitation in Bilingual Aphasia: A SOM-Based Model. Lecture notes in computer science, 6731, 207-217.

Kiran, S., Sandberg, C., & Sebastian, R. (2011). Treatment of category generation and retrieval in aphasia: Effect of typicality of category items. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 54, 1101-1117. PMC21173393

Kiran, S., Sandberg, C., & Abbott, K. (2009). Treatment for lexical retrieval using abstract and concrete words in patients with aphasia: Effect of complexity. Aphasiology. 23 (7-8), 835-853. PMC2758793

Conference Abstracts

Sandberg, C. & Kiran, S. (2013). Changes in Functional Connectivity Associated with Treatment Gains in Aphasia. Organization for Human Brain Mapping. Seattle, WA. poster

Sandberg, C. & Kiran, S. (2013). Changes in Functional Connectivity Associated with Direct Training and Generalization Effects of a Theory-Based Generative Naming Treatment. Clinical Aphasiology Conference. Tucson, AZ.

Gibson, E., Sandberg, C., Fedorenko, E., Kiran, S. (2013). A rational inference approach to aphasic language comprehension. The 26th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. Columbia, SC.

Gibson, E., Sandberg, C., Fedorenko, E., Kiran, S. (2012). A noisy-channel account of aphasic language comprehension. Neurobiology of Language Conference. San Sebastian, Spain.

Glynn, P, Sandberg, C., & Kiran, S., (2012). The role of the left and right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in language recovery in aphasia. Organization for Human Brain Mapping. Beijing, China.

Kiran, S., Grasemann, U., Sandberg, C., & Miikkulianen, R. (2012). Simulating bilingual aphasia: A novel computational model. International Conference on Cognitive and Neural Systems. Boston, MA.

Sandberg, C., Gibson, T., Fedorenko, E., & Kiran, S. (2012). The effect of plausibility in sentence processing: Evidence from priming and sentence comprehension. Clinical Aphasiology Conference. Lake Tahoe, CA. poster

Kiran, S., Sandberg, C., Gray, T., Kester, E., & Roberts, P. (2012). Rehabilitation of bilingual aphasia: Evidence for within- and between-language generalization. Clinical Aphasiology Conference. Lake Tahoe, CA.

Sandberg, C. & Kiran, S. (2012). Neural correlates of treatment effects on abstract and concrete words in aphasia: a pilot study. Cognitive Neuroscience Society. Chicago, IL. poster

Sandberg, C. & Kiran, S. (2011). Treatment effects on abstract and concrete word processing in aphasia. American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention. San Diego, CA.

Hoover, E., Waters, G., Kiran, S., Caplan, D., Levy, J., & Sandberg, C. (2011). Effects of syntactic complexity in discourse comprehension. American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention. San Diego, CA.

Kiran, S., Sandberg, C., Glynn, P., Ul-Haq, I., & Richardson, J. (2011). What is the role of the right hemisphere in the recovery of language in aphasia? Organization of Human Brain Mapping. Quebec City, Canada.

Sandberg, C. & Kiran, S. (2011). Neural correlates of treatment effects on abstract and concrete words in aphasia: A pilot study. Organization for Human Brain Mapping. Quebec City, Canada. poster

Kiran, S., Caplan, D., Sandberg, C., Levy, J., & Berardino, A. (2011) Development of a theoretically based treatment for sentence comprehension deficits in aphasia. Clinical Aphasiology Conference. Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Hoover, E., Waters, G., Levy, J., Caplan, D., Kiran. S., Berardino, A., & Sandberg, C. (2011). Effects of syntactic complexity in discourse comprehension. Clinical Aphasiology Conference. Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Sandberg, C. & Kiran, S. (2011). Abstract and concrete word processing in patients with aphasia. International Neuropsychological Society, Boston, MA. poster

Kiran, S., Caplan, D., Sandberg, C., Levy, J., Berardino, A., & Simms, M. (2010). Development of a theoretically based treatment for sentence comprehension deficits in aphasia. Academy of Aphasia. Athens, Greece.

Levy, J., Kiran, S., Caplan, D., Berardino, A., & Sandberg, C. (2010). Development of a test of effects of syntactic comprehension disorders on discourse comprehension. Academy of Aphasia. Athens, Greece.

Kiran, S., Grasemann, U., Sandberg, C. & Miikkulianen, R. (2010). Simulating bilingual aphasia: a novel computational model. Academy of Aphasia. Athens, Greece.

Kiran, S., Cabral, F., Sandberg, C., & Tripodis, Y. (2010). Analysis of language errors as function of treatment reveals mechanisms in bilingual aphasic lexical access. Donostia Workshop on Neurobilingualism. San Sebastian, Spain.

Kiran, S., Grasemann, U., Sandberg, C. & Miikkulianen, R. (2010). Simulating bilingual aphasia Rehabilitation: A novel computational model. Donostia Workshop on Neurobilingualism. San Sebastian, Spain.

Grasemann, U., Sandberg, C., Kiran, S., and Miikkulainen, R. (2010). Rehabilitation and cross-language transfer in bilingual aphasia: Towards a computational model. Computation and Neural Systems Conference. San Antonio, TX.

Grasemann, U., Sandberg, C., Kiran, S., and Miikkulainen, R. (2010). Rehabilitation and cross-language transfer in bilingual aphasia: Towards a computational model. Fourteenth International Conference on Cognitive and Neural Systems. Boston, MA.

Sandberg, C. & Kiran, S. (2010). Abstract and concrete noun processing in healthy older adults using fMRI. Cognitive Neuroscience Society. Montreal, Canada. poster

Sandberg, C. & Kiran, S. (2009). Abstract and concrete noun processing in healthy older adults using fMRI. Academy of Aphasia. Boston, MA. poster

Sebastian, R., Sandberg, C., & Kiran, S. (2009). Semantic processing in Spanish-English bilinguals with aphasia using fMRI. 7th International Symposium on Bilingualism. Utrecht, Netherlands.

Sandberg, C., & Kiran, S., (2009). Abstract and concrete noun processing in healthy older adults using fMRI. Clinical Aphasiology Conference. Keystone, CO. poster

Sandberg, C., Abbott, K., & Kiran, S. (2008). Treatment of abstract and concrete words for lexical retrieval in aphasia. Clinical Aphasiology Conference. Jackson Hole, WY.

Presentations

Sandberg, C. (2014). Neuroplasticity related to training and generalization following theory-based generative naming treatment in chronic aphasia. Boston University Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Research Colloquium Series. Boston, MA.

Sandberg, C. (2012). Neural correlates of treatment effects on abstract and concrete words in aphasia: A pilot study. Boston University Neuroscience Student Seminar. Boston, MA.

Sandberg, C. & Kiran, S. (2011). Treatment effects on abstract and concrete word processing in aphasia. American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention. San Diego, CA.

Sandberg, C. (2011). Neural correlates of abstract and concrete word processing in persons with aphasia. Boston University Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Research Colloquium Series. Boston, MA.

Awards

2013 DASRF

2012 NIH NIDCD NRSA F31

2010 DASRF