....RESEARCH

The permanent academic faculty of the Department have been and/or are currently engaged in the following research areas. Detailed information can be found in their personal webpages.

• Neurogenic speech and language disorders.
  Development and application of diagnostic and treatment methods for aphasic individuals.
  Neuroscience of treatment of speech and language disorders.
  Voice and swallowing disorders

• Syntactic Theory, Comparative
  Syntax Language Acquisition
  The syntax of Autism, Parkinson, SLI and agrammatism

• Speech Signal Processing using advanced moment enhanced spectrogram
  techniques.
  Differential Diagnosis using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps and Case Based Reasoning.
  AAC (augmentative alternative communication) technology.
  Development of special software for the field of Speech Language Pathology.

• Development and disorders of Speech and Hearing in patients with hearing loss.
  Central Auditory Processing and learning disabilities. Development of speech audiometry tests. Fitting/Mapping and speech recognition. Stuttering in children and adults. Velopharyngeal dysfunction and speech disorders.

• Phonological disorders and therapy
  Specific language impairment
  Learning disabilities, dyslexia
  Language and speech in children with autism spectrum disorders

Research Projects

Currently funded research in the Department

Archimedes III

• The structure of (a)typical language: Linguistic Theory and Intervention.
  PI: Arhonto Terzi

Website:

The proposed research will investigate the linguistic behavior of four populations on a series of syntactic structures each. Populations and associated structures are selected on the basis of important questions their combination raises for current scientific inquiry into the properties of human language, with choice of syntactic structures in particular to also be based on the contribution they are expected to make given that the language under investigation is Greek. The last three areas of investigation constitute continuation of previous research that needs to be brought into closer scrutiny and/or be expanded, while the first one is novel.
Thus, we aim to study:
a. Broca’s aphasics (agrammatics) on parallel subcomponents of the nominal and the verbal/sentential domains, in order to find out whether it indeed differs between the two, how exactly, and why.
b. Parkinson’s Disease patients on access to rules of grammar and comprehension of complex sentences before and after Deep Brain Stimulation, in search of understanding how they differ from healthy speakers and why.
c. children and adolescents with Autistic Spectrum Disorders on a number of linguistic structures, in order to find out how their syntax differs from that of typical development and how much of this difference is due to an impaired syntactic component.
d. typically developing children on the acquisition of the subcomponents of spatial prepositions, in search of understanding the contribution of the linguistic input into the acquisition of (non-linguistic concepts such as) spatial terms.
Our objectives are:
1. to enrich understanding of the linguistic expressions under investigation via the experimental data to be obtained, hence, advance our knowledge of the properties of human language faculty in the overall.
2. to enrich understanding of the language impairments under investigation, with the purpose of ultimately informing and improving therapeutic intervention.
(1/1/2012-31/12/2014)

Thales (University of Athens)

• Levels of impairment in Greek aphasia: Relationship with processing
  deficits, brain region and therapeutic implications
  PI: Spyridoula Varlokosta

Speech-Language Pathology research team co-ordinator: Ilias Papathanasiou Speech-Language Pathology research team member: Angeliki Kotsopoulou (Neuro)linguistics research team member: Arhonto Terzi (1/1/2012-30/9/2015)

Research Projects funded in the recent past

Latsis Foundation, Research Grants 2011

• Mapping out the Linguistic Profile of (Greek speaking) individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders
  PI: Arhonto Terzi

Scientific team: Theodoros Marinis, Co-PI (University of Reading), Angeliki Kotsopoulou (TEI of Patras), Konstantinos Francis (University of Athens).

Individuals with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have poor social skills and impaired
pragmatic and conversational abilities, but it is unclear whether their grammar remains intact.
This project constitutes the first systematic investigation of the language abilities of Greek
speaking individuals with ASD, addressing two domains of grammar that are crucial for
communication: pronoun reference and passive morphology.
Greek provides an ideal window to address the nature of the language impairment(s)
in ASD since it has clitic (τον) and reflexive (τον εαυτό του), pronouns, which involve syntax, but also full pronouns (αυτόν), which also implicate pragmatics. Besides, reflexivity can also be expressed via passive morphology, which however is ambiguous between reflexive (πλύθηκε) and passive (σπρώχτηκε) interpretation. The proposed study is expected to shed light into whether ASD language reflects impaired syntactic knowledge or simply pragmatic impairments, and identify a linguistic profile for ASDs able to extend beyond Greek speaking populations. (1/1/2011-31/12/2012)

Archimedes I

• Knowledge Based Reasoning Tools for Decision Support in Speech and
  Language Pathology
  Principal investigator: Voula Georgopoulos

Speech and language disorders may have a serious impact on a number of aspects of daily life. The objective of this research program is the development of new knowledge-based methodologies of decision support in the diagnosis and treatment, what will be used in the designing of effective computing tools of support of critical decisions in speech and language pathology. These tools will function complementary and in support of existing methods and processes of decision-making in communication disorders for both diagnosis and intervention as well prognosis. They will be based on the intelligent methodologies of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps, Case Based Reasoning. The selected methodologies are based on the human way of reasoning and management of knowledge and experience. The development of methodologies and tools will follow the way of thinking and the process of decision-making used by speech pathologists. Also they will be applied in the clinical practice.
(1/2/2004-31/12/2007)

• The Structure of Prepositions in Normal, Early and Impaired Language
  Principal investigator: Arhonto Terzi

The project investigates the linguistic properties of prepositions/prepositional phrases, in Greek and crosslinguistically, within the framework of generative grammar. It aims at a thorough understanding of the syntactic and semantic structure of prepositions and their historical relationship and structural similarities with other grammatical categories. It also studies:
a) the acquisition of prepositions by native speakers of Greek with normal language development.
b) the behavior of native speakers of Greek with impaired language, in particular, of speakers with SLI and agrammatism in the same domain. Τhe findings of the above populations are compared with the aim to:
a) contribute to the theoretical claims concerning the status of prepositions in grammar.
b) understand the process of acquisition and maturation of the structure of prepositions, as well as the similarities and differences of this process with language breakdown.
(1/2/2004-31/12/2007)