CBR Seminar Series: Simona Mancini
CBR Seminar Series: Simona Mancini, September 15, 2025
Title: Dynamic interplay between language and domain-general functions
Abstract: The relationship between domain-general cognitive processes and language functions has emerged as a critical area of investigation in understanding both typical language processing and recovery from aphasia. Studies on healthy young adults reveal minimal domain-general involvement in language processing, with engagement increasing only under heightened task demands. Research in post-stroke aphasia has revealed concurrent deficits in domain-general capacities such as attention, executive control and memory. Support for active domain-general includes both behavioral evidence—strong correlations between domain-general and linguistic task performance in people with aphasia- and functional evidence showing domain-general region engagement during language processing tasks. However, we still have incomplete knowledge of how these cognitive domains interact throughout stroke recovery. Understanding the interplay between linguistic and domain-general abilities in post-stroke aphasia enables comprehensive cognitive assessments that support more effective, individualized rehabilitation approaches. In this presentation, I will share recent findings from a longitudinal study by our group demonstrating that the interaction between linguistic and domain-general abilities can be mediated by the time post-stroke and the linguistic domain under investigation.
Bio:
Education
PhD in Cognitive Science,
University of Siena, Italy
Current Position
Ikerbasque Research Associate Professor / Neurolinguistics and Aphasia group leader at BCBL, Ramón y Cajal Fellow
Areas of Interest
Syntax and discourse processing, aphasia, bilingualism