Post-stroke aphasia: Abrupt onset and stable at the chronic stage

Primary Progressive Aphasia: Gradual degeneration

Q: The two etiologies have very similar aphasia profiles, yet how the different temporal trajectories affect the brain's plastic responses? (Tao et al., 2022)

Methods: Functional and structural MRI, brain connectivity.

The anatomical location of stroke play a major role in determining the brain's functional network re-organization (Tao et al., 2021) 

Methods: Graph theory, network analysis, machine learning. 

A spelling treatment for people with difficulty in spelling (i.e., acquired dysgraphia) after stroke.  

We identified the brain's longitudinal changes underlying the participants' behavioral improvement.

We identified changes within the ventral occipital "visual word form" area (Tao et al., 2019) as well as in communications between distant cortical regions (Tao et al., 2020).

Behavioral treatment accompanied by tDCS is a promising approach in aphasia rehabilitation.

We found that tDCS may induce qualitatively distinct functional changes in the brain compared to behavioral treatment alone (Tao et al., 2021).