Aneta Kielar

Associate Professor, Speech/Language and Hearing

Member of the Graduate Faculty

Associate Professor, BIO5 Institute

Associate Professor, Cognitive Science - GIDP

Speech And Hearing Sciences, 332

Dr. Kielar joined Department of Speech Language and Hearing Sciences at the University of Arizona in August 2016. She received Bachelor's of Science from the University of Toronto with major in Psychology and Biological Sciences. After that she pursued her graduate studies at the University of Western Ontario, where she completed Master's degree in Cognitive Psychology with focus on the role of working memory on sentence comprehension. Dr. Kielar received her Ph.D. in Cognition and Perception in 2008. Her dissertation concentrated on how individuals process complex words in English, focusing on inflectional and derivational morphology. After completion of her doctorate Dr. Kielar worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Health Sciences, and at the Aphasia and Neurolinguistics Research Laboratory at Northwestern University, where she investigated neural correlates of language processing and recovery of functions in patients with stroke-induced and primary progressive aphasia.

Currently, Dr. Kielar's research examines cognitive and neural factors which affect language functions, and how these change across life-span and are influenced by stroke, brain injury and neurological disorders. Her work combines cognitive measures and multimodal neuroimaging techniques (fMRI, EEG/ERPs, and MEG). In addition, she applies methods such functional connectivity, DTI, tractography, voxel based morphometry, and lesion symptom mapping to investigate relationship between structure and function in patients with stroke aphasia and PPA. Dr. Kielar has a strong interest in neuroplasticity related to speech and language disorders and cognitive processing disorders. She is interested in recovery of function, and treatment approaches involving speech-language therapy in combination with noninvasive brain stimulation techniques, such as TMS and tDCS.

Research Interest

Key words: Neuroimaging, fMRI, ERPs/EEG, Electromagnetoencephalography (MEG), electrophysiology, connectivity, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, language disorders, stroke-induced aphasia, Primary Progressive Aphasia, cognitive aging. My current research program is centered on investigating the neurobiology of healthy language system, and changes in cognitive and language processing associated with stroke and neurological disorders. My interests include incorporating cognitive measures and multimodal neuroimaging methods, with a goal to understand the relationship between language and other aspects of cognition, as well as the neural dynamics related to brain damage, resilience, and recovery. I direct my research efforts to identify factors which affect language comprehension and production, and how these change with development and are influenced by aging, stroke, brain injury, and neurodegenerative disorders, such as Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The long-term goal of my research is to understand the cognitive and neural processes that support recovery of cognitive and language functions after stroke. I study language processing at the multiple levels, using behavioral experiments and both structural (DTI, lesion-symptom mapping, voxel-based morphometry) and functional neuroimaging (fMRI, EEG, MEG). In addition, I am interested in neuroplasticity and application of noninvasive brain stimulation techniques (e.g., TMS, tDCS) to the treatment of aphasia and dementia.

Offering Research Opportunities

Yes

Prerequisite Courses

None

Majors Considered

All

Types of Opportunities

Volunteer

For credit

Description of Opportunity

No description given

Start Date