# Sensorimotor processing of auditory feedback in aphasia

> **NIH NIH K01** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA AT COLUMBIA · 2021 · $138,670

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Stroke is a leading cause of disability in the United States, which in many cases can lead to speech impairment
that creates barriers to participation in professional, social, and family settings. Aphasia is the most common
type of post-stroke speech impairment that has profound consequences for the patients and results in
diminished ability to comprehend, produce and control speech. While recovery can be promoted with speech
treatment, improvement remains modest and typically requires a large amount of therapy which contributes to
rising health care costs. A major shortcoming of currently existing treatment approaches is that they have
focused on enhancing the outcome measures associated speech production, without taking into account that
targeting deficits in sensory feedback processing of speech may significantly increase treatment efficiency and
effectiveness. Therefore, a key step toward refining treatment strategies is to develop objective biomarkers that
can probe the integrity of sensorimotor mechanisms of speech and identify their impaired function in patients
with post-stroke aphasia. This proposed project is significant because it takes the first step toward exploring
the behavioral and neuroanatomical biomarkers of impaired sensorimotor processing, with focus on
understanding the critical role of auditory feedback mechanisms for speech production in aphasia. The career
development plan combines the candidate's former research training with expertise of the mentoring team to
meet the goals of the proposed project. The research and training plans provide an empirical foundation for the
proposed project and will allow the candidate to establish a translational line of research as an independent
investigator to study the behavioral and neural bases of speech sensorimotor impairment in stroke patients
with aphasia. This project aims to use the behavioral biomarkers of altered auditory feedback (AAF) combined
with neuroimaging data to identify the patterns of brain damage and diminished structural connectivity within
the auditory-motor areas of the left hemisphere that predict impaired sensorimotor processing of speech in
aphasia. The long-term goal of this research is to develop a model that relates patterns of brain damage to
sensorimotor deficits causing speech impairment. The main objective of this proposal is to identify behavioral
and neuroanatomical biomarkers that characterize deficits in sensorimotor mechanisms of speech. The central
hypothesis is that damages to auditory-motor network will impair speakers' ability to detect and/or correct for
AAF-induced speech errors. We also hypothesize that the patterns of damage will predict the degree of
diminished speech error processing, as indexed by the AAF biomarkers. The rationale for the proposed
research is that identifying the source of sensorimotor deficit will improve diagnosis and targeted treatment of
speech disorders in aphasia. The proposed research is ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10201559
- **Project number:** 5K01DC015831-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA AT COLUMBIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Roozbeh Behroozmand
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $138,670
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-07-05 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10201559

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10201559, Sensorimotor processing of auditory feedback in aphasia (5K01DC015831-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10201559. Licensed CC0.

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