معرفی
Elena Barbieri is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, with dual affiliation at the Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease. Her interdisciplinary work bridges cognitive neuroscience, clinical neuropsychology, and rehabilitation medicine.
Her educational trajectory includes:
- BS in Cognitive Science from University of Milano-Bicocca (2005)
- MS in Cognitive Neuroscience from University of Milano-Bicocca (2007)
- PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from University of Milano-Bicocca (2012)
- Postgraduate Training Fellow in Clinical Neuropsychology at Northwestern University (2014)
- Postdoctoral Fellow in Communication Sciences and Disorders at Northwestern University (2017)
Dr. Barbieri's research centers on language-brain relationships with primary focus on aphasia mechanisms and rehabilitation. She investigates both stroke-induced aphasia and Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA), employing multimodal neuroimaging (structural/functional MRI, PET), electrophysiology (ERP), and noninvasive brain stimulation. Her work examines neural reorganization during recovery, cross-linguistic language processing patterns, and development of culturally adapted assessment tools like the Northwestern Assessment of Verbs and Sentences (NAVS) across Italian, Persian, and German populations. Current projects address TDP-43 pathology progression, virtual reality interventions, and neural mechanisms of syntactic processing in neurodegenerative conditions.
Analysis of her 2021-2025 publications reveals strong emphasis on PPA neurobiology, cross-linguistic aphasia rehabilitation, and neural plasticity. Key trends include development of international consensus outcome measures (COS-PPA), investigation of disease-specific progression patterns (TDP-43 pathology), and innovative virtual interventions for dementia-related communication disorders. Her work consistently integrates clinical assessment with advanced neuroimaging to map language network reorganization.
Her research excellence is recognized through:
- Karen Toffler Scholarship for neurodegenerative disease research (2023)
- Cognitive Neuroscience Society Postdoctoral Fellow Award (2018)
- Society for Neurobiology of Language Travel Award (2016)
Dr. Barbieri serves as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Language Science and maintains active roles in ISTAART and the Academy of Aphasia. Her Mesulam Center affiliation enables collaborative research on cognitive-linguistic deficits in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia, with particular focus on developing targeted language interventions for progressive neurodegenerative conditions.
