# Language Processing in Context Following Traumatic Brain Injury

> **NIH NIH R01** · VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER · 2021 · $681,349

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) have chronic deficits in cognitive-communication and these impairments
have been linked to negative outcomes and poor community reintegration and independence. A significant
challenge in the field is that commonly used methods to detect these deficits in clinical and research settings
lack the required sensitivity and have focused on a limited subset of discourse tasks that do not reliably predict
communication outcomes. At the heart of our proposal is the idea that current theories of cognitive-
communication are too narrow and the methods used to detect deficits are too limiting. In contrast to current
conceptualizations which state that cognitive-communication deficits affect discourse and conversation (leaving
basic sentence level processing intact), we propose that cognitive-communication impairment is a deficit in the
flexible use and processing of language that manifests across the varied and dynamic contexts of everyday
language use, whether processing a single sentence or participating in a multiparty conversation. For example,
individuals with TBI make inappropriate or irrelevant comments, suggesting a failure to consider the
communicative setting and the perspective of their conversational partners, as well as insensitivity to
contextual cues (environmental, partner) that guide language use. These are problems using and
processing language in context. From this perspective, there is a striking disconnect in the field between
clinical observations of impairments in using language in context and the widespread use of decontextualized
tasks and measures to capture these deficits in the lab and clinic (e.g., monologue discourse task). Using
ecologically valid language tasks and methods sensitive enough to detect even subtle, though meaningful,
disruptions in language, the proposed work endeavors to show that deficits in contextual language processing
in TBI extend even to the rapid processing of individual phrases and sentences in the moment (i.e., online
processing), can be captured in controlled settings, and that such deficits predict communicative outcome. The
proposed program of research represents a novel direction in the study of TBI with substantial basic science
and clinical translational significance. The proposal is organized around three AIMS: (1) To investigate
language processing in context in TBI; (2) To investigate language use in group settings in TBI; (3) To
determine the relationship between language processing in context and communicative outcome. This
proposal is unique in the field and uniquely promising for understanding the nature of deficits in contextual
language processing following TBI and, ultimately, improving rehabilitation intervention outcomes.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10066339
- **Project number:** 5R01DC017926-02
- **Recipient organization:** VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Sarah Brown-Schmidt
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $681,349
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-12-11 → 2024-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10066339

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10066339, Language Processing in Context Following Traumatic Brain Injury (5R01DC017926-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10066339. Licensed CC0.

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