Research
Functional neuroanatomy of language
How does the brain represent and process language? We have investigated the neural substrates of word production, syntactic processing, and many other language domains using functional MRI (e.g., Wilson et al. 2018), lesion-symptom mapping (e.g., Wilson et al. 2010; Wilson et al. 2015), diffusion tractography (e.g., Wilson et al. 2011), and cortical stimulation mapping (e.g., Chang et al. 2018). More recently, we have explored the relationship between linguistic and non-linguistic demand in language regions and other brain networks (Quillen et al., 2021; Philips et al., 2023), and how vowel representations in auditory cortex are shaped by phonemic categories (Levy & Wilson, 2020). We also maintain a toolbox for voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping.
Neural correlates of recovery from aphasia after stroke
Aphasia is one of the most common and debilitating consequences of stroke. Fortunately, most individuals with aphasia experience some degree of recovery of speech and language function over time. However, there is great variability in terms of the extent of recovery, which has not been well understood. In a longitudinal study funded by the NIH (R01 DC013270), we have comprehensively documented trajectories of recovery from aphasia and their dependence on lesion location and extent (Wilson et al. 2023), shown that this information can be used to explain much of the variance in recovery patterns (Levy et al. 2024), and revealed the critical role of surviving core language regions in language processing in people with aphasia (Wilson & Schneck 2021; Schneck et al. 2026). Our ongoing work investigates the functional changes that underlie recovery, using longitudinal language mapping and naturalistic neuroimaging with encoding models (Tang et al., 2026).
Language mapping
Functional MRI can be used to identify language regions in individual people, for both clinical and research purposes. However, commonly used language mapping paradigms don't always reliably activate language regions, especially in people with language disorders, who may find language tasks difficult to perform. We developed the Adaptive Language Mapping (ALM), in which task difficulty is dynamically adjusted so that each individual is challenged at a level within their competence. We have shown that ALM provides valid and reliable identification of language regions in people with and without aphasia (Wilson et al. 2018; Yen et al. 2019), and have demonstrated its utility for presurgical brain mapping (Diachek et al. 2022). The ALM toolbox, which runs in MATLAB with Psychtoolbox, is freely available for download.
Quick Aphasia Battery
The Quick Aphasia Battery (QAB) is a brief aphasia assessment that provides a valid, reliable, and multidimensional profile of language function in about fifteen minutes (Wilson et al. 2018). The QAB is made up of eight subtests, each comprising sets of items that probe different language domains, vary in difficulty, and are scored with a graded system to maximize the informativeness of each item. From the eight subtests, eight summary measures are derived, quantifying strengths and weaknesses across core language domains. Originally published in 2018, the QAB has been translated and adapted into 12 languages by collaborators worldwide and has been widely adopted in clinical and research settings. All materials are freely available under a Creative Commons license.
APROCSA
Auditory-perceptual rating of connected speech in aphasia (APROCSA) is a system for characterizing the expressive speech and language of individuals with aphasia. Inspired by the auditory-perceptual approach used in motor speech disorders, APROCSA involves trained listeners rating 27 features of connected speech samples on a five-point scale. We have shown that APROCSA is reliable and valid, and that connected speech profiles can be described in terms of four latent dimensions: paraphasia, logopenia, agrammatism, and motor speech (Casilio et al. 2019). These dimensions have distinct neural substrates (Casilio et al. 2025). We have developed a clinical training program for APROCSA (Casilio et al. 2026) and released an open dataset of connected speech samples with consensus ratings (Ezzes et al. 2022).
A universal aphasia battery for Indigenous Australian languages
There are no validated aphasia batteries in any of the traditional languages or creoles spoken by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, a striking gap given that Indigenous Australians have triple the age-adjusted stroke incidence of other Australians. In this NHMRC-funded project (Ideas 2038040), we are developing aphasia assessments for seven widely spoken Indigenous languages: Kalaw Kawaw Ya, Yumplatok (Torres Strait Creole), Pintupi-Luritja, Pitjantjatjara, Warlpiri, NT Kriol, and Aboriginal English. Our approach is to create a "universal" aphasia battery whose items are defined in terms of linguistic properties rather than specific word forms, enabling it to be faithfully instantiated in any language. This work will produce validated clinical tools for the seven languages, and a framework for developing aphasia batteries in other community languages in Australia and worldwide.