Monday, June 2, 2025
6/2/2025
Research Supplement: Naturalistic Neuroimaging for Presurgical Language Mapping - Summary of Supplement Project This diversity supplement to parent grant R01DC020965 “Naturalistic Neuroimaging for Presurgical Language Mapping” (Tie, Liebenthal, PIs) seeks two years of support for graduate student Manuel Marte. Mr. Marte is a PhD candidate in the Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences program at Boston University (BU) and a certified speech-language pathologist with a strong clinical foundation in neuropsychological assessment of individuals with aphasia with broad training on innovative behavioral research methods in communication disorders. His long-term career goal is to become an academic researcher specializing in naturalistic approaches for quantitative assessment and intervention in monolingual and bilingual persons with aphasia. Mr. Marte is of Hispanic descent and as such, his professional and cultural backgrounds make him ideally suited for an academic career focused on studying bilingual aphasia, and broadly, aphasia in all individuals. The activities proposed under the supplement consist of hands-on training in naturalistic methods for aphasia research. Mr. Marte will spearhead the development of a cutting-edge paradigm using emotional reactivity to movie clips as a lens for assessing language capacity in aphasia. He will master state-of-the-art neuroscientific data collection and analysis methodologies, including eye-tracking, functional MRI, and brain-lesion mapping. He will acquaint himself with language assessment in persons with aphasia resulting from a brain tumor. The specialized training and participation in pioneering research will lay for the applicant a robust foundation on which to develop an independent research program. The research activities under this supplement augment the parent grant’s Aim 1 by adding objective behavioral (emotional reactivity) and physiological (eye gaze, fMRI) measures of language engagement to test the same primary hypothesis, namely that language performance in individuals with aphasia will be comparable or superior for movie-watching versus conventional language paradigms. The measures added in the supplement will be conducted with the participants of the parent grant’s Aim 1, and do not change the risk to these participants. Proposed for a two-year duration starting 03/15/2024, this supplement aligns with Mr. Marte’s academic timeline (expected graduation in 02/26) and the parent grant's active period (expected until April 2028). A salient milestone in his training trajectory includes his intent to apply for an NIH grant, such as the F32 postdoctoral diversity fellowship grant.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).