Communication Sciences and Disorders professor receives award for research into language performance in patients with mild traumatic brain injury

The Texas Speech Hearing Foundation has awarded Assistant Professor Rocío Norman,  PhD, CCC-SLP, a Past Presidents Award in support of her ongoing research to better understand the underlying cognitive mechanisms of language comprehension in people with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).

Dr. Norman’s research will use event-related potentials (ERPs), a widely available methodology that measures brain responses to sensory or cognitive stimuli, to advance understanding and the resulting clinical care for patients with language problems after mTBI. The proposed study is an extension of Dr. Norman’s KL2 Mentored Research Career Development Program and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) at UT Health San Antonio.

Dr. Norman said she the award enables her to continue her research, which faced numerous challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“COVID-19 impacted researchers significantly, especially those of us who do human subjects research in the community,” she said “Not only was our lab shut down for several months, but we also had participants who were hesitant to participate in research due to the looming public health crisis. This grant will allow us to continue to recruit participants which will lead to a study with greater scientific rigor.”

By helping researchers understand language performance in adults with mTBI, the study will help identify the clinical needs of that population, which is complex and understudied clinically, Dr. Norman said. The study’s results will inform the design of future studies and provide data for  seeking external funding. The study model can also be used to develop tools for other patient populations such as those who have experienced a stroke or are living with dementia or long COVID-19 syndrome, Dr. Norman said.

The Texas Speech Hearing Foundation presented the $1,500 award to Dr. Norman on Feb 25.