Naturalistic Assessment of Language and Emotion

Naturalistic Assessment of Language and Emotion is a project that aims to understand how people with aphasia, a language disorder often caused by stroke, process language in real-world situations. Instead of using traditional language tests, we are using movie clips to simulate a more natural context.

While participants watch short movies, we track three things: (i) their emotional reactivity, using a joystick or button press; (ii) their eye movements, using an eye-tracker; and (iii) their brain activity, in an MR scanner.

We believe this approach can yield a richer picture of how people with aphasia process language in everyday life. For example, we may find that even if someone struggles with traditional language tests, they may still understand a movie’s content by tracking other communicative cues, such as its emotional tone or by the presence of gestures or facial expressions.

By looking at these factors together, we hope to uncover abilities that standard tests may miss. This may lead to better ways of assessing and treating aphasia, ultimately helping people communicate more effectively in their daily lives.