Michael Scimeca

Google Scholar Profile

Research Funding & Training

• 2021-Current: NSF DGE 1633516 NRT Understanding the Brain: Neurophotonics
• 2020-2021: NIH/NIDCD T32DC013017 Advanced Research Training In Communication Sciences and Disorders

Academic Honors

• 2021 – NIH/NIDCD Academy of Aphasia (AoA) Young Investigator Travel Fellowship
• 2020 – ASHFoundation Graduate Student Scholarship
• 2019 – Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders (ANCDS) Student Conference Fellowship

Research Interests

My current work is situated in language recovery in bilingual aphasia. Broadly construed, I am investigating which factors affect treatment outcomes in our current study of semantic-feature based naming therapy in both Spanish and English. First and foremost, I am interested in measures of patient variability such as pre-treatment aphasia severity and its effect on post-treatment outcomes. In a secondary sense, I am investigating psycholinguistic variables at the item-level such as lexical/logarithmic frequency and phonological length to better understand their effect on recovery within language and across language. The results from this project will not only inform our current computational modeling paradigm but will also permit comparison of our current data to previously published semantic-feature based studies in Spanish/English bilingual aphasia.

Current Projects

Predicting Rehabilitation Outcomes in Bilingual Aphasia Using Computational Modeling (PROCoM)

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Manuscripts

Scimeca, M.*, Abdollahi, F.*, Peñaloza, C., & Kiran, S. (2022). Clinical perspectives and strategies for confronting disparities in social determinants of health for Hispanic bilinguals with aphasia. Journal of Communication Disorders, 98, 106231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2022.106231

Peñaloza, C., Scimeca, M., Gaona, A., Carpenter, E., Mukadam, N., Gray, T., Shamapant, S. & Kiran, S. (2021). Telerehabilitation for word retrieval deficits in bilinguals with aphasia: Effectiveness and reliability as compared to in-person language therapy. Frontiers in Neurology, 12, 589330. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2021.589330

Peñaloza, C., Dekhtyar, M., Scimeca, M., Carpenter, E., Mukadam, N., & Kiran, S. (2020). Predicting treatment outcomes for bilinguals with aphasia using computational modeling: Study protocol for the PROCoM randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open, 10(11), e040495. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-040495

Presentations

Conference Submissions:
Scimeca, M., Peñaloza, C., Gaona, A., Carpenter, E., Mukadam, N., Gray, T., Shamapant, S. & Kiran, S. (2021, November). A telerehabilitation protocol for word retrieval impairment in bilingual aphasia: Implementation and insights. Accepted for oral presentation at the Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Washington, D.C. , USA.

Abdollahi, F., Scimeca, M., Peñaloza, C. & Kiran, S. (2021, November). Confronting health disparities for bilinguals with aphasia. Accepted for oral presentation at the Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Washington, D.C., USA.

Scimeca, M., Peñaloza, C. & Kiran, S. (2021, October). The influence of multilevel factors on semantic-feature based naming outcomes in bilingual aphasia. Accepted for poster presentation at the Academy of Aphasia 59^th Annual Meeting. (held virtually).

Gilmore, N., Scimeca, M., Griffin, J., Off, C.A., & Kiran, S. (2021, September). Telerehabilitation for Acquired Brain Injury: Evidence and Insights From Three Unique Cognitive-Linguistic Treatments During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Accepted for symposium presentation at the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) 98^th Annual Conference. Dallas, TX, USA.

Peñaloza, C., Scimeca, M., Gaona, A., Carpenter, E., Mukadam, N., Gray, T., Shamapant, S. & Kiran, S. (2021, September). Assessing the effectiveness and reliability of teletherapy for word-retrieval deficits in bilinguals with aphasia. Accepted for pre-recorded oral presentation at the British Aphasiology Society Annual Conference. (held virtually).

Peñaloza, C., Scimeca, M., Gaona, A., Carpenter, E., Mukadam, N., Gray, T., Shamapant, S. & Kiran, S. (2020, October). Feasibility and reliability of teletherapy for word-retrieval deficits in bilingual aphasia. Accepted for poster presentation at World Congress for Neurorehabilitation. Paris, France (held virtually).