CBR Seminar Series: Leonardo Bonilha
CBR Seminar Series: Leonardo Bonilha, May 18, 2026
Title: White Matter, Brain Health and Digital Twin in Aphasia Recovery
Abstract:
Classical lesion-symptom mapping has provided a solid foundation for understanding the neurobiology of language and aphasia, yet lesion location alone accounts for only a fraction of the variability in aphasia severity and recovery. A more complete account may require expanding our view to encompass white matter connectivity as the structural scaffolding for language networks, and the broader dimensions of brain health that modulate it, including cerebrovascular health. Structural connectivity metrics can capture the residual integrity of language networks and demonstrate their relevance in aphasia severity and recovery potential. Yet predicting individual outcomes remains challenging: lesion burden, white matter integrity, functional network reorganization, and systemic health factors interact in complex, non-linear ways that traditional group-level analyses struggle to capture. Digital twin models offer a potential novel solution by creating individualized, dynamic virtual replicas that integrate multimodal neuroimaging data to simulate how each unique person responds to injury and treatment over time, moving toward personalized, mechanistically grounded models of aphasia recovery with potential implications for rehabilitation planning.
Bio:
Leo Bonilha, M.D.-Ph.D., a physician scientist and professor of neurology, has been practicing medicine for more than 20 years. He is Clinical Director for University of South Carolina Brain Health and Senior Associate Dean for Research at the USC School of Medicine in Columbia.