Keynote

Dr. Wilson is a cognitive neuroscientist and Associate Professor of Speech Pathology in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. He directs the Language Neuroscience Laboratory and has authored over 90 papers on aphasia and the neuroscience of language.

His research program revolves around three related questions:

1. How is language processed in the brain?
2. How does brain damage affect language processing in individuals with aphasia?
3. Which brain mechanisms support the recovery of language processing in people with aphasia?

To address these questions, his laboratory works with people with and without aphasia, using a range of state-of-the-art functional and structural neuroimaging techniques. These neuroimaging data are combined with comprehensive language assessments designed to investigate different components of the language processing system.

His current projects include:

• A longitudinal study of recovery from aphasia after stroke (supported by the National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders, USA)
• The development of a universal framework for creating aphasia batteries in new languages (supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia)

Dr. Christine Yoshinaga-Itano is a Research Professor at the Institute of Cognitive Science, Professor Emerita, Department of Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences, at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Visiting Professor at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, Centre for Deaf.

She has authored over 125 published articles and chapters with a focus on universal newborn hearing screening and predictors of developmental outcomes of children with hearing loss, with an emphasis on children and families from multicultural/linguistic backgrounds, and those with socio-economic and linguistic challenges.

She received Honors from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and was the Jerger Career Research Awardee from the American Academy of Audiology.

She is a member of the Audiology Committee for the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) and the Audiology Committee of the Global Coalition for Hearing Health.