Call for expressions of interest in a PhD fellowship at the University of Barcelona

Principal Investigator: Claudia Peñaloza

I invite applications for a 4-year full-time PhD fellowship. Successful candidate(s) will be invited to apply to the Spanish FPI fellowship (official call opening in September 2024) to conduct research under the project:  COGNATE PROCESSING, LEARNING AND RE-LEARNING IN BILINGUALS WITH APHASIA (PID2023-151781OA-I00: COG-BI-APHASIA) recently funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación/ Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (Proyectos de Generación de Conocimiento, 2023).

Project Summary

Aphasia is an acquired speech and language disorder that often results from stroke and other neurological conditions. In bilingual persons with aphasia (BWA), their two languages can be affected, resulting in long-term communicative impairment, negatively affecting their independence and quality of life. While single word processing deficits are common in BWA, these deficits and their recovery are undercharacterized since BWA do not often receive therapy in both languages. Based on psycholinguistic evidence demonstrating that cognates (words with similar form/meaning between languages) show a processing and learning advantage over non-cognates (words with similar meaning but different word form across languages) in neurotypical bilinguals, this project aims to examine whether cognates may have a processing, learning, and relearning (treatment) advantage in BWA. This project bridges basic psycholinguistics, clinical neurolinguistics, and aphasia rehabilitation research to examine cognate effects in this clinical population, while identifying factors based on word characteristics as well as individual factors that modulate cognate effects. The resulting knowledge will inform (i) language processing and learning ability in BWA generating methods that may have potential use in clinical practice and (ii) treatment of lexical retrieval deficits in this population.

Requirements

Succesful candidates should have a background (bachelor and master’s degree) in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, neuropsychology, logopedics or linguistics/ clinical linguistics (or related areas). They should be highly proficient in Spanish, with high command of English in oral and written communication. They should show strong motivation to work with patients with language disorders resulting from neurological conditions. They are expected to have experience in statistical analyses using the R software, good organizational skills and ability to work both independently and collaboratively. Good command of Catalan and previous experience with patients with language disorders/ neurological conditions will be valuable. 

The student will be part of the Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit (CBPU) and will have access to scientific infrastructure, research resources and training activities at the CBPU and the Institute of Neurociences at the University of Barcelona, with the oportunity to join the international Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists. Contact. Interested candidates shold send their CV and a brief statement of interest in this position to the principal investigator at claudia_penaloza@ub.edu before September 5, 2024.