Maria Varkanitsa, PhD

Maria Varkanitsa is a Research Assistant Professor at Sargent College and the Assistant Scientific Director of the Center for Brain Recovery (CBR). Her research focuses on the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying language processing and recovery in individuals with aphasia, particularly following stroke. She integrates methods from theoretical linguistics, psycholinguistics, and neuroimaging to investigate language processing and the interaction between linguistic and non-linguistic cognition post-stroke aphasia. A key aspect of her work involves exploring predictors of language recovery, utilizing both clinical data and advanced neuroimaging techniques like resting-state functional connectivity. Additionally, she is engaged in identifying biomarkers, such as white matter integrity and cerebral small vessel disease burden, to predict treatment outcomes and optimize rehabilitation strategies for people with aphasia.

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