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Cognitive Functioning and Cognitive Rehabilitation Laboratory

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male research scientist director at Kessler Foundation

Nancy Chiaravalloti, PhD

Laboratory Director

Neuroimaging developments in particular have had a significant impact on our ability to identify and understand changes in cognition in the face of neurological illness and injury, as well as understand how cognitive rehabilitation is working.

 

Areas of Focus

Nancy Chiaravalloti, PhD, directs the Cognitive Functioning and Cognitive Rehabilitation Laboratory, part of the Center for Neuropsychology and Neuroscience Research where she is also director at Kessler Foundation. The Lab team identifies effective means of treating learning and memory deficits by developing and testing new treatment protocols through randomized clinical trials. Researchers here employ various neuroimaging techniques using task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to help understand how cognitive rehabilitation works at the level of the brain.

In addition, the team successfully established a non-invasive, non-pharmacological, cost-effective approach to improving cognitive function called Kessler Foundation modified Story Memory Technique (KF-mSMT®) protocol, now used by many clinicians in the U.S. Research continues using this technique to further investigate how new information is strengthened in the memory of individuals with traumatic brain injury and multiple sclerosis and to develop additional treatment protocols.

 

Current Funding Support

National Institute on Disability Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR)
National Institutes of Health
New Jersey Commission on Spinal Cord Injury Research
New Jersey Commission on Brain Injury Research

 

Recruiting Research Studies
Applying Exercise to Improve Cognition in TBI
Improving New Learning and Memory in People with Mild Cognitive Impairment
Improving Memory and Learning in MS
Improving Memory and Learning in TBI
Northern New Jersey TBI Model Systems

Cognitive Functioning and Cognitive Rehabilitation Lab Team