Welcome to the Bonilha Lab
We are a clinical neuroscience laboratory led by our Principal Investigator, Dr. Leonardo Bonilha. As a lab, we perform research to better understand and treat neurological disorders such as language impairments after stroke (aphasia) and epilepsy. Our group is composed of graduate students, research assistants, post-doctoral researchers, speech-language pathologists, clinical coordinators, and neurologists at Emory University.
Three Main Areas of Research
Our Epilepsy projects collaborate with other groups across the world to further our understanding of epilepsy disorders by combining clinical, neuroimaging, and neurophysiological data. Through our different research lines, we hope to contribute to the development of biomarkers for personalized diagnosis and prognosis of patients with epilepsy, with the ultimate goal of improving seizure control and quality of life.
Our Aphasia projects include Speech Language Pathologists, post-doctoral scholars, and Neurologists who investigate different questions related to aphasia. We use neuroimaging techniques like MRI to look at different areas of the brain related to language and to assess neurological change post-stroke and as a result of behavioral speech therapy. The goal of this work is to optimize rehabilitation outcomes and improve quality of life for individuals with aphasia.
Our Computational Neuroscience projects employ the structural connectome and tools from machine learning and network science to understand factors that determine patient recovery after brain injury. Our goal is to elucidate brain determinants that can predict functional recovery after stroke, and to assess the impact of surgical procedures on intractable epilepsy.